..Ht'PPARfi 


/. 


Jffrnm  ti|p  ICibrartf  of 

Ipqueatitph  by  I|tm  to 

tl|p  Htbrari}  of 

Prtttrpton  Slfrnlngtral  S'pmtttar^ 

BR  1700  .S53  1897 

Sheppard,  Nathan,  1834-1888. 

Heroic  stature  I 


I 


HEROIC  STATURE 


IHeroic  Stature 


five  H&t>res8es 
IRatban  Sbeppar& 

Author  of  "Before  an  Audience,"  etc.,  etc. 


e|9 


ipbUabelpbia 

American  asapttst  ipubllcation  Society 


Copyright  1897  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 


ifrom  tbc  Society's  own  press 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE 


The  matter  of  this  book  was  found 
among  Professor  Sheppard's  effects  by  his 
executors.  On  being  examined  by  them 
and  by  the  publishers'  readers,  these 
"Addresses"  seemed  to  merit  preserva- 
tion by  reason  of  their  many  qualities  of 
excellence,  presenting  so  much  of  inspir- 
ing thought  and  so  fitting  an  exposition  of 
the  style  of  a  man  once  prominent  before 
the  public. 

All  the  immediate  members  of  Professor 
Sheppard's  family  have  gone  with  him 
into  the  world  beyond.  Most  of  those 
into  whose  hands  this  book  will  fall,  have 
never  met  or  seen  him.  There  are  a  few 
who  will  recall  the  bright,  pungent  letters 
written  by  him  for  the  "  Examiner  "  over 
the  pseudonym  of  "Keynote."  Others, 
especially  in  England  and  Scotland,  will 


IPubUsbers'  Hlote 


recall  the  various  lectures  which  he  deliv- 
ered. To  all  of  these,  the  publishers  are 
sure,  these  addresses  will  come  as  a  grate- 
ful remembrance  of  the  one  who  was 
once  with  them.  It  will  be  a  pleasant 
thought  to  some  who  hold  Professor  Shep- 
pard's  memory  dear,  that  by  this  post- 
humous book  his  work  shall  still  go  for- 
ward. 

The  publishers  have  sought  for  a  fitting 
dress  for  the  book  that  thereby  its  recep- 
tion may  be  more  favorable  and  its  circu- 
lation more  wide.  The  book  is  believed 
by  them  to  be  in  every  way  worthy  of 
the  attention  of  the  Christian  public. 


CONTENTS 

The  Human  Martin  Luther    ...     i 

John  Wesley 59 

Norman  Macleod 109 

Charles  G.  Finney 149 

v' 

Hugh  Latimer 191 


THE  HUMAN  MARTIN  LUTHER 


I 


WE  are  to  consider  the  great  Protestant 
leader  from  a  human  point  of  view. 
For  three  generations  he  was  of 
German  peasant  stock  ;  farther  than  that 
the  biographers  do  not  go. 

Father,   grandfather,   and   great-grand- 
father peasants  !  Where  did  Luther  get  his 
brains  ?     Reversion    doubt- 
less—probably    descended    ^"'g^'J/"^ 
from  a  Viking  king.     Son  of 
a  peasant  farmer,  he  says,  it  was  not  writ- 
ten in  the  stars  that  he  was  to  become 
a   doctor  of   divinity,  or   that   he   should 
pull  the  pope's  hair  and  marry  a  runaway 
nun.     But  it  was  written  in  the  stars  that 
he  was  to  do  more  for  the  emancipation 
of    the   human    mind   from    ecclesiastical 
bondage  than  any  other  man. 

He  sits  high  in  all  the  people's  hearts 
now,  for  Catholics  and  Jews  joined  in  the 
fourth  centennial  celebration  at  Eisleben, 
3 


Zbc  Muman  martin  Xutbct 

where  Martin  Luther  was  born  on  the 
tenth  of  November,  1483,  at  eleven  at 
night  precisely. 

At  seven  years  of  age  he  was  sent  to  a 
free  school  ;  there  was  a  free  school  in 
Germany  four  hundred  years  ago.  He 
had  five  brothers,  of  whom  we  have  never 
heard.  It  exhausted  them  to  make  him. 
Five-sixths  of  us  go  to  the  making  of  the 
one-sixth — who  get  all  the  offices.  It 
must  be  uncomfortable  to  have  one's  only 
fame  consist  in  a  famous  brother.  The 
more  distinguished  he,  the  more  extin- 
guished you. 

Two  footsore  and  weary  students  ar- 
rived in  Magdeburg  with  staff  in  hand, 
and  on  their  backs  knapsacks  containing  all 
their  worldly  goods.  They  had  come  to 
study  at  a  famous  school  of  the  town. 
One  of  these  boys  was  Martin  Luther. 
He  was  fourteen  years  of  age.  They 
sang  under  the  windows  of  the  rich,  and 
begged  for  bread  and  alms.  It  was  called 
the  "bread  chorus."  The  windows  of 
the  rich  have  heard  it  many  a  time  since, 
and  may  hear  it  many  a  time  again  before 
4 


Mnccstve  anD  Start 


my  esteemed  contemporary,  Mr.  Arnold, 
and  his  remnant,  put  a  stop  to  the  worship 
of  lubricity  and  duplicity,  and  set  the 
world  to  rights. 

He  went  from  the  school  at  Magdeburg 
to  the  school  at  Eisenach,  where  a  wise- 
hearted  woman,  Ursula  Cotta  by  name, 
gave  the  boy  Martin  a  home  and  met  his 
four  years'  expenses.  Nor  did  she  offer 
to  subscribe  the  trousers  if  some  other 
woman  would  furnish  all  the  arithmetics, 
according  to  the  stratagem  of  him  who 
subscribes  on  condition  that  the  rest  of  us 
shall  help  him  get  the  name  and  credit  of  it. 

At  eighteen  years  of  age  he  was  a  stu- 
dent at  the  University  of  Erfurt,  where 
his  father  was  then  able  to  support  him 
until  he  secured  his  degree. 

He  dipped  into  theology,  then  into  the 
law.  He  did  not  like  the  drudgery  of  the 
law,  or  the  subtleties  of  theology.  He 
was  fond  of  rhetoric  and  oratory,  poetry 
and  music.  He  was  rhetorical  and  ora- 
torical' from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
his  career.  He  learned  to  play  upon  the 
guitar  and  flute,  a  good  example  to  all 
5 


Zbc  IHuman  fllartln  Xutbet 

young  parsons  and  other  young  men — 
pick  up  some  source  of  amusement  to 
which  you  can  flee  to  escape  the  blues. 
It  will  help  you  ;  it  may  help  others. 

The  human  Martin  Luther  had  a  very 
human  temper.     The  violence  of  his  dis- 
position   was    derived   from 

**ucmpir  ^0^^  parents— not  to  men- 
tion his  school  teachers,  one 
of  whom  we  are  told  licked  him  fifteen 
times  in  one  day  for  not  knowing  what  he 
was  never  taught.  If  he  had  been  a  young 
American  Protestant  he  would  probably 
have  thrashed  the  teacher.  He  says  he 
often  hid  in  the  chimney  corner  until  the 
storm  of  his  dear  father's  wrath  blew 
over.  His  mother  too  was  inordinately 
addicted  to  the  rod.  Both  of  his  par- 
ents were  passionate  and  affectionate, 
and  so  was  he.  The  most  savage  dis- 
positions have  intervals  of  extreme  ten- 
derness. 

Luther's   father's  coat  of  arms  was  a 
hammer  on  a  granite  block,  and  that  well 
typified  what  Luther  afterward  became — 
a  hammer  on  a  granite  block. 
6 


THts  Sense  of  tbe  /Dbarvelous 

Looking  at  him  from  a  human  point  of 
view,  we  will  make  note  of  prominent 
characteristics.      His    sense 

of   the  marvelous  was  one.    »«s  sense  of  tbc 

/marvelous 
He  was  what  we  call  super- 
stitious from  first  to  last — an  indefinite 
word,  but  definite  enough  as  applied  to 
him.  Necessarily  superstitious  from  his 
being  born  and  bred  a  Roman  Catholic 
in  1483  instead  of  in  1883,  when  it  is  so 
easy  for  Monseigneur  Capel  to  boast  of 
how  much  range  the  reason  is  allowed  by 
the  pope.  The  range  allowed  to  reason 
by  the  pope  is  the  range  of  reason  allowed 
by — reason. 

A  flash  of  lightning  set  Luther's  sense 
of  the  marvelous  on  fire.  He  could  not 
resist  such  a  summons.  He  fell  to  the 
ground  ;  it  was  the  call  of  God  to  him,  a 
call  to  the  convent.  He  implored  Saint 
Ann  to  help  him  to  become  a  monk,  and  a 
monk  he  became.  This  is  a  striking  illus- 
tration of  the  fact  that  a  man's  wish  may 
be  considered  God's  call,  and  that  a  strong 
predisposition  may  be  confounded  with  an 
answer  to  a  prayer. 
7 


Zbc  IKuman  fljlartln  Xutber 

He  remained  three  years  in  the   con- 
vent at  Erfurt.     He  developed  rapidly  and 
enormously    in    a    religious 
u^pToTpre;.    experience  of  the  monastic 
type,     morbid,    malarial,    a 
low  malarial  fever  being  mistaken  for  high 
spiritual  fervor,  in  which  vanity  passed 
for  humility,  and  self-indulgence  for  self- 
denial.     For  a  man  makes  himself  believe 
that  in  going  through  the  observances  he 
is  crucifying  himself,  whereas  he  is  really 
glorifying  himself. 

As  the  result  of  this  type  of  piety  Luther 
became  the  victim  of  a  morbid   self-ex- 
amination.   He  accused  him- 

S:»1*,°r  ^'^<  ^^  though  he  were  guilty 
of  crime,  when  he  was  guilty 
of  only  one  crime,  the  crime  of  a  false 
self-accusation.  It  is  not  impossible  to 
hear  now  from  the  pulpit  a  prayer  which 
would  insure  an  indictment  by  the  grand 
jury  if  the  man  were  telling  the  truth. 
Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against 
thyself. 

No   half-hearted    monk   was    the    boy 
Luther.     He  was  a  whole-hearted  monk, 
8 


Mis  ffirst  ^urning»point 


a  monk  of  the  monks  was  he.  Monks 
pray;  he  prayed  without  ceasing.  Monks 
fast ;  he  fasted  till  you  could  see  the  ribs 
through  his  skin.  Monks  do  penance;  he 
did  penance,  flogging  himself  and  starving 
himself,  and  confining  himself  in  a  dark 
cell,  until  he  was  found  prostrate,  ema- 
ciated, almost  dead  with  his  attempts  to 
please  God  by  disobeying  his  command- 
ments. The  severity  of  his  early  dis- 
cipline had  contributed  to  the  unhealthful 
gloom  that  drove  him  into  the  convent. 

In  this   convent,  we   are   told,  Luther 
read  the  whole  of  the  Bible  for  the  first 
time.     Some  assert  that  he 
was  ignorant  up  to  this  time    „'^^f^^^^\  ^ 
of  Paul's  Epistles.     Are  we 
to  conclude  that  the  Epistles  did  for  Luther 
what  the  Gospels   alone  were   not  able 
to  do  ?  that  Paul  succeeded  where  Jesus 
failed  .-'     At  all  events  he  seems  to  have 
been  indebted  to  Paul  for  a  revolution  in 
his  religion.     Paul  and  he  were  congenial. 
He  was  enamored  of   Paul's   method   of 
controversial   statement,  reveled    in    the 
very  things  hard  to  be  understood,  and 
9 


Zbe  IHuman  /IBarttn  Xutbec 

made  them  no  easier  to  be  understood  by 
explaining  them. 

He  felt  the  necessity  of  a  vocabulary 
that  admits  of  pulmonary  eloquence,  like 
those  who  prefer  the  old  version  to  the 
new,  because  it  is  easier  for  them  to  pro- 
duce an  effect  with  the  word  damnation, 
than  with  the  thing  condemnation.  They 
would  rather  damn  a  man  than  condemn 
him,  because  they  are  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  man  would  prefer  to  be  con- 
demned. Paul's  influence  upon  Luther 
would  make  a  psychological-theological 
study  of  rare  interest. 

The  precise  meaning  of  his  "justifica- 
tion by  faith  "  has  occasioned  much  dis- 
cussion, into  which  we  shall  not  enter. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  ferment  of 
Luther's  mind  precluded  exact  thinking, 
and  that  it  was  something  of  a  tangle  to 
himself.  When  Dr.  Jonas  complained  to 
him  that  he  could  not  follow  him  in  his 
sermons,  Luther  replied,  "I  cannot  follow 
myself;  I  am  too  wordy." 

But  our  topic  is  not  so  much  Luther's 
doctrines  as  how  he  handled   them  and 

lO 


Ml0  JFirst  tCurningspoint 


himself.  Ours  is  not  a  doctrinal  but  a 
personal ;  not  a  spiritual  but  a  human 
point  of  view. 

This  change  or  revolution  was  emo- 
tional, rather  than  intellectual.  With 
that  understanding  it  is  not  necessary  for 
him,  or  his  biographers,  or  us  to  get  a 
definite  idea  of  what  this  change  amounted 
to,  so  far  as  his  theological  opinions  are 
concerned.  He  had  a  tumultuous  ex- 
perience in  the  convent.  He  was  some- 
times prostrate  under  a  sense  of  unpardon- 
able sin,  and  sometimes  rose  into  a  de- 
lirium of  ecstasy  from  a  sense  of  forgive- 
ness. He  rose  out  of  his  stupor  with  a 
devouring  passion  for  making  himself  a 
better  man,  and  his  church  a  better  church, 
and  his  world  a  better  world.  A  temper- 
ament this,  not  for  keeping  the  command- 
ments, but  for  public  speaking.  It  soon 
showed  itself,  and  was  soon  recognized. 
From  this  time  he  was  a  great  public 
speaker  and  agitator,  for  he  had  the  ora- 
torical temperament.  He  was  nervous. 
No  man  can  be  too  nervous  for  a  public 
speaker,  provided  he  keeps  on  the  sane 
II 


Zbc  tHutnan  fillartin  Xutbec 

side  of  the  line — if  anybody  can  tell 
where  that  is. 

Luther  was  quick-witted,  passionate, 
combative,  aggressive,  droll,  with  an 
abundance  of  animal  magnetism,  and  a 
large  vocabulary  by  nature,  and  a  quick, 
accurate,  natural  ear  for  the  rhythm  of 
rhetoric  ;  in  short,  he  was  endowed  and 
equipped  for  an  outdoor  leader — a  leader 
of  the  people.  He  had  neither  the  kind 
of  courage,  nor  the  balance,  nor  the  judg- 
ment, nor  the  tact,  required  in  a  leader  of 
thought  or  a  teacher  of  ideas. 

He  had  the  courage  that  draws  its 
nourishment  from  collision,  its  stimulation 
from  opposition.  His  fire  was  like  that  of 
the  flints,  it  needed  friction  to  draw  it  out. 
Before  the  mob  and  before  the  pope,  and 
before  governors  and  kings,  he  was  auda- 
cious and  aggressive  ;  in  the  quiet  of  his 
study  he  was  hesitating  and  vacillating. 
This  is  temperament.  The  opinions  he 
proclaimed  in  public  with  so  much  bold- 
ness, were  spoken  of  with  misgivings 
when  he  reflected  upon  them  in  private. 
He  exclaimed  : 

12 


©rlcst  anD  iprofcssot 


"I  never  feel  prouder,  more  full  of  lofty 
daring,  than  when  I  hear  their  denuncia- 
tions. What  care  I  for  the  whole  mob  of 
them,  doctors,  bishops,  and  princes." 

But  when  the  denunciation  dies  away 
then  dies  away  the  delirium  it  occasioned. 
Many  a  time  the  preacher  imagines  he  has 
torn  everybody  to  pieces,  but  finds  that 
he  has  torn  nobody  to  pieces  but  himself. 

He  was  ordained  as  a  priest  at  twenty- 
four,  and  became  a  professor  of  philosophy 
at  the  University  of  Witten- 
berg   at  twenty-five.     Now      IfJ^f^ 
watch    him    feel    his   way. 
Did  you  ever  feel  your  way  in  the  dark  ? 

His  lectures  drew  crowds  of  students 
and  created  a  sensation.  They  were 
searching,  sweeping,  bold.  The  young 
priest  was  evidently  feeling  his  way  into 
a  line  of  thought  of  his  own.  The  thunder 
in  him  began  to  come  out.  Lecturing 
brought  it  out.  Lecturing  is  the  oldest  of 
the  forms  of  public  instruction,  and  will 
hold  its  own  with  any  and  all  of  them  to 
the  end. 

The  audience  was  made  up  of  professors, 
13 


Zbc  Human  /Ifcarttn  Xutbcr 

students,  nobles,  princes,  common  people, 
and  they  were  all  amazed  at  his  boldness, 
fascinated  by  his  originality,  startled  by 
his  heresies.  Another  heretic  is  rising. 
He  will  certainly  make  a  stir,  but  what 
kind  of  a  stir  ?  He  will  certainly  be  a 
leader,  but  whither  will  he  lead  ?  What 
was  the  young  man  driving  at  ? 

His  next  great  experience  was  a  long 
journey.     Traveling  revolutionizes  opin- 
ions, often   uproots   convic- 
BnotbcrUurn=  ^j  makes  short  work  of 

ing  iPoint  ' 

long-entrenched  ideas,  early 
education,  parental  influence;  changes 
character  for  good  or  evil. 

As  he  approached  the  capital  of  Chris- 
tendom, he  thought  of  it  with  awe  and 
looked  upon  it  with  reverence  ;  he  would 
nourish  his  faith  with  its  memories  and 
observances.  He  fell  upon  his  knees, 
and  exclaimed,  "  Hail,  Holy  Rome  !  "  but 
he  no  sooner  beheld  it  than  he  beheld  its 
corruption.  He  had  expected  to  find  the 
highest  faith,  he  really  found  the  lowest 
form  of  unbelief,  and  disbelief,  and  mis- 
belief. From  the  pope  down  the  hierarchy 
14 


Mis  TRetutn  from  "Rome 


was  bad,  bad,  bad.  The  priests  laughed 
at  their  own  doctrines  and  rites.  They 
carried  around  the  consecrated  wafer  on 
a  beautiful  white  stallion.  He  says,  "A 
good  Italian  is  as  great  a  prodigy  as  a 
black  swan." 

He  was  next  a  doctor  of  divinity,  lec- 
turer at  the  university,  and  town  preacher. 
It  was  a   transition    period. 
He  felt  his  responsibility  and     j^om^'J^'" 
shrank  from  it ;  he  told  his 
friends  that  they  had  put  too  much  upon 
him.      He    shrank,    but    went    forward; 
dreaded  to  speak,  but  spoke  out.     It  was 
not  for  want  of   self-confidence  that   he 
shrank.     He  had  self-confidence  and  self- 
depreciation  both,  a  common  combination 
in  public  speakers  and  leaders  of  men. 

The  most  effective  popular  leaders  are 
made  up  of  these  two  contradictory  ele- 
ments warring  in  their  members,  an  ex- 
terior self-assertion,  and  an  interior  awful 
sense  of  deficiency — a  defiant  front  and 
the  perspiration  running  down  the  back. 
He  threw  himself  into  his  work  with  just 
that  peculiar  quality  of  zeal  and  pluck 
IS 


XLbc  tiuman  martin  Xutbec 

which  comes  of  just  such  shrinking  self- 
depreciation  as  his.  Apprehension  of 
failure  is  an  element  of  success. 

Leo  X.,  pope  of  Rome,  wanted  money 
with  which  to  finish  St.  Peter's,  and  in- 
stead of  getting  a  mortgage, 

r/po'tuSi  he  sent  the  rascally  monk, 
Tetzel,    to    Germany    with 
indulgences  for  sale. 

The  last  thought  of  the  first  Christians 
was  a  gorgeous  house  of  worship,  and  the 
first  thought  of  the  last  Christians  is  a 
gorgeous  mortgaged  house  of  worship, 
which  echoes  with — yes,  that's  the  trouble 
— it  is  so  constituted  that  you  can  hear 
nothing  of  the  gospel  but  its  echoes. 
Hence  you  never  hear  a  church  in  the 
New  Testament  say  one  word  about  rais- 
ing money  to  pay  a  debt,  and  you  never 
hear  anything  in  some  churches  of  our 
day  but  an  appeal  for  money,  or  else  an 
appeal  for  some  one  to  come  and  persuade 
them  to  give  what  they  say  they  have 
not  in  their  possession  to  give,  cash. 

Tetzel  mounted  his  auction  block  and 
exclaimed  : 

i6 


Zbc  "KinetB^five  propositions 

"  Is  your  friend  or  relative  roasting  in 
purgatory  ?  The  moment  your  money 
chinks  in  the  pope's  chest,  that  moment 
your  friend's  soul  flies  to  heaven."  "  Saint 
Stephen  gave  himself  up  to  be  stoned  and 
Saint  Bartholomew  to  be  skinned,  now 
will  you  not  at  least  make  the  sacrifice  of 
a  small  donation  to  save  your  souls  ?  " 

This  donation  bought  a  letter  of  indul- 
gence, which  allowed  the  bearer  to  water 
the  stock  of  the  company,  or  freeze  out 
the  other  stockholders,  or  confiscate  any 
man's  property  that  stood  in  his  way, 
provided  he  was  in  his  pew  every  Sunday 
morning,  with  a  long  face  and  a  loud  voice. 
A  pew  may  be  as  much  of  a  self-indul- 
gence as  an  opera  box.  Are  we  quite  sure 
that  an  auction  sale  of  pews  is  not  a  sale 
of  indulgences  ? 

Luther's  students  went  to  hear  Tetzel 
and  told   Luther  what  Tetzel  said.     Stu- 
dents  love    a    row.      They 
found    Luther    in    just   the  ^S,^,f;;S;r 
state  of  inflammability  ade- 
.quate   for    their    purpose.      Behold    how 
great  a  forest  a  little  fire  kindleth. 
B  17 


Ube  Human  fllactln  Xutber 

He  was  now  twenty-eight  years  of  age. 
He  was  young,  but  he  had  learned  how 
to  handle  himself  before  an  audience.  AH 
his  qualities  and  qualifications  came  into 
play — even  his  very  defects  were  aids. 
His  violent  temper  roused  the  German 
phlegm.  He  was  in  his  element — con- 
troversy, hand  to  hand,  out-door,  pugna- 
cious polemics.  He  was  young,  roused, 
and  mad.  The  angry  spot  doth  glow  on 
Cesar's  brow. 

No  other  kind  of  man  was  equipped  for 
such  a  work  as  this — no  mere  scholar,  or 
theologian,  or  fastidious  critic,  or  purist  in 
rhetoric  ;  no  Melancthon,  or  Erasmus,  or 
Calvin.  The  human  Martin  Luther  was 
needed  for  the  human  Martin  Luther's 
work. 

He  attacked  Tetzel  with  all  the  vehe- 
mence, and  with  all  the  indefmiteness  and 
ambiguity,  of  his  nature.  A  young  lion 
roared  against  him  and  he  rent  him  as  he 
would  a  kid,  with  a  very  indefinite  idea 
of  what  the  lion  was  talking  about.  He 
challenged  Tetzel  and  all  the  rest  of  them 
to  a  discussion,  according  to  custom,  by 


XTbe  1Kltnets*f[v>c  proposttiona 

writing  out  and  nailing  up  ninety-five 
propositions,  or  theses,  upon  the  pillars 
of  the  church  of  All  Saints,  That  was 
October  31,  1517.  This  country  had  been 
discovered  only  twenty-five  years. 

It  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose  here  to 
quote  but  some  portions  of  these  proposi- 
tions : 

No.  I.  "When  Christ  commands  us  to 
repent  he  intends  that  our  whole  life  shall 
be  one  of  repentance." 

No.  7.  "  God  forgives  the  sins  of  no  one 
who  is  not  willing  to  obey  his  confessor." 

No.  32.  "  Those  who  think  themselves 
sure  of  salvation  by  indulgences  will  go  to 
perdition  with  those  who  taught  them  so." 

No.  71.  "  Cursed  be  he  who  speaks 
against  the  indulgence  of  the  pope." 

No.  72.  "  But  blessed  be  he  who  speaks 
against  the  foolish  and  impudent  language 
of  the  preachers  of  indulgences." 

No.  86.  "  'Why,'  ask  the  common  peo- 
ple, '  does  not  the  pope,  who  is  richer  than 
Croesus,  build  St.  Peter's  with  his  own 
money  instead  of  that  of  poor  Chris- 
tians ?  '  " 

19 


^be  THuman  martin  Xutber 

(Perhaps  because  rich  men  often  make 
poor  Christians.  They  do  not  give  lest 
they  should  prevent  those  from  giving 
who  have  nothing  to  give.  So  nobody 
gets  anything  until  somebody  dies,  and 
then  the  lawyers  get  it.) 

These  propositions  may  sound  tame  to 
us,  but  they  were  bold  for  him  and  his 
circumstances  ;  nor  do  they  dovetail  any 
better  than  some  of  the  planks  of  our 
wonderful  party  platforms  ;  but  that  itself 
is  illustrative  of  Luther's  intellect,  posi- 
tion, and  circumstances. 

He  was  still  feeling  his  way  ;  he  was 
always  feeling  his  way.  Who  is  not  ? 
He  says  himself,  these  ninety-five  proposi- 
tions "  were  advanced  more  by  way  of 
argument  than  in  a  positive  manner." 
Speaking  of  what  was  called  his  "  furious 
attack  "  in  these  theses,  he  says  :  "  I  did 
not  know  what  indulgence  was,  and  the 
tune  was  pitched  too  high  for  my  voice." 

But  the  voice  rose  to  the  tune,  and  the 
people  rose  to  the  voice.  It  was  another 
voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  but  it 
lacked  the  defmiteness  and  explicitness  of 


Zbe  Vlinets^tivc  ipropositlons 

John  the  Baptist's  cry.  Few  reformers 
know  so  well  what  they  are  working  for 
as  John  the  Baptist  did. 

He  could  not  look  into  the  fields  of  time 
and  say  which  grain  would  grow  and 
which  would  not,  but  he  could  sow  seeds 
with  a  free  hand,  and  some  of  them  have 
grown,  or  a  Quaker  boy  would  not  be 
writing  this. 

We  do  not  disparage  him  ;  we  merely 
explain  him.  His  method  of  action  is  be- 
yond the  reach  of  microscopic  criticism, 
and  we  must  give  the  leviathan  room  to 
disport  himself.  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  calls 
him  a  "Philistine  of  genius,  who  had  a 
coarseness  and  lack  of  spiritual  delicacy 
which  has  harmed  his  disciples." 

He  certainly  was  no  aesthete.  If  he  had 
come  to  this  country  he  would  have  come 
in  the  "  Mayflower,"  and  not  in  the  "  Sun- 
flower." I  came  over  in  the  "  William 
Penn  "  and  am  another  Philistine,  and  a 
Quaker  Philistine  at  that ;  hence  the  anti- 
ecclesiastical  bias  of  this  discourse. 

Yes,  coarse  he  was  perhaps,  coarse  like 
the  plow  that  has  roots  to  tear  up,  coarse 


Zbc  IHuman  martin  Xutbct 

like  the  bulldog  that  has  a  bull  to  throw. 
And  the  bulldog  threw  the  bull.  Head- 
long, headstrong,  but  heartright  and  up- 
right was  this  man  Luther. 

Luther  was  now  at  bay.     A  brave  man 

at  bay  is  a  scene  to  admire,  and  men  glory 

in  him.      Martin  Luther  at 

Uutbcr  at  36as    ,.,.,.,  ,, 

bay  IS  a  historical  scene.  It 
was  an  event,  and  was  destined  to  change 
events.  It  brought  his  great  cause  to  a 
great  crisis.  Feeling  his  way  until  he 
found  himself  at  bay,  he  was  forced  to  go 
farther  than  he  would  have  gone,  and 
compelled  to  take  a  position  that  he  never 
would  have  taken.  The  attempt  and  not 
the  deed  confounded  him. 

He  did  not  intend  to  secede  from  the 
Romish  Church  ;  he  intended  to  stay  in  it 
and  reconstruct  it,  but  it  was  not  so  to  be. 
Events  are  often  too  much  for  the  men 
who  create  them.  The  Reformation  was 
now  leading  the  Reformer,  instead  of  the 
Reformer  the  Reformation. 

The  pope  might  have  won  him  by  con- 
ciliatory tact,  but  he  preferred  the  course 
which  Protestantism  would  have  chosen, 


Hlo  "Retreat 


the  coercion  which  would  bring  on  a  col- 
lision, which  in  turn  would  ensure  victory 
to  Luther.  The  pope  excommunicated 
Luther,  and  thus  Leo  X.  created  the  first 
great  Protestant  Reformer. 

Then  there  was  a  stir  and  a  commotion. 
The  pope's  Bull  of  excommunication  ar- 
rived in  Germany,  and  the  students  took 
it  from  the  bookseller's  shop  and  tore  it 
to  pieces.  Luther  burned  it  at  the  gates 
of  the  town  amid  acclamations  and  ex- 
ultations. Tetzel  had  burned  Luther's 
ninety-five  propositions,  Luther  burned 
the  pope's  anathema. 

Luther  once  at  issue  with  the  whole 
power  of  Rome  there  was  no  retreat.  He 
must  20  forward.  Confused 
motives  within  him  and  con- 
fused noises  around  him,  there  he  stood, 
bewildered  but  unabashed.  He  had 
groped  his  way  to  a  point  from  which  he 
dared  not,  could  not,  recede.  He  had  set 
out  to  make  a  better  man  of  himself,  a 
better  church  of  his  church,  and  a  better 
world  of  his  world.  But  his  church  re- 
pudiated him,  and  the  world  was  divided 
23 


trbe  tHuman  fHlartin  Xutber 

on  account  of  him.  He  went  out  to  war 
before  he  heard  the  "  moving  in  the  tops 
of  the  mulberry  trees,"  but  now  he  must 
fight  on. 

Just  here  we,  from  our  point  of  view  in 
time  and  circumstances,  can  see  distinctly 
a  profound  principle  disentangle  itself  from 
the  confused  noises  : 

No  religious  authority  can  be  accepted 
without  religion  ;  destitute  of  religion  the 
man  is  destitute  of  authority,  whatever 
may  be  his  costume  or  credentials. 

There  is  not  a  more  dramatic  scene  in 

all  history,  or  a  more  picturesque  figure, 

than  Luther  arraigned  before 
sefore  tbe  ©let  ^j^    ^j^  ^^  Worms. 

at  Timocms 

He  left  Wittenberg  in  a 
carriage  surrounded  by  his  friends  from 
the  university  and  the  town,  who  filled 
the  air  with  shouts  and  prayers  and  bene- 
dictions. "  Do  not  desert  us,"  they  cried. 
The  villages  welcomed  him  as  he  passed. 
They  drank  his  health  at  the  hotels,  and 
cheered  him  with  merry  music.  A  priest 
sent  him  a  portrait  of  Savonarola,  and 
urged  him  to  be  manful  for  the  truth.  At 
24 


:©ctorc  tbe  Diet  at  IDlorms 


Weimar  they  were  posting  an  edict  re- 
quiring all  who  had  Luther's  books  to  give 
them  up.  He  was  asked  if  this  sign  de- 
terred him,  and  he  replied,  "  I  will  go  on 
if  they  kindle  a  fire  between  Wittenberg 
and  Worms  that  reaches  heaven." 

His  health  succumbed  to  the  excitement, 
and  his  spirits  failed  with  his  failing 
strength.  The  spirits  of  the  bravest  de- 
pend upon  the  brave  man's  health  ;  words 
will  not  do. 

In  spite  of  bad  health  and  low  spirits  he 
held  a  public  discussion  at  Heidelberg,  and 
pushed  on.  As  he  approached  the  im- 
perial city  and  its  dread  ordeal,  his  friends 
weakened  and  sought  to  deter  him.  But 
he  answered  : 

"  I  am  resolved  to  enter  Worms,  although 
as  many  devils  should  set  at  me  as  there 
are  tiles  on  the  housetops." 

And  he  did  enter  Worms,  and  enter  the 
diet,  and  stand  in  the  presence  of  all  the 
pomp  and  power  of  Germany  and  of  Rome, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical.  The  emperor  of 
Germany,  Charles  V.,  sat  upon  a  throne 
high  and  lifted  up,  clad  in  the  royal  purple. 
25 


Uhe  THuman  filarttn  Xutbcr 

Below  him  in  the  chair  of  State  sat  his 
brother  Frederick.  Before  him  was  the 
pope's  nuncio,  clothed  in  full  canonicals, 
and  holding  in  his  hand  the  thunders  of 
the  Vatican,  which  at  that  day  made 
monarchs  tremble  and  held  nations  in  sub- 
jection. Grouped  around  were  the  princes 
and  great  officers  of  Church  and  State  ; 
knights  and  nobles  in  their  yellow  cloaks, 
the  representatives  of  the  free  cities  in 
black,  the  bishops  in  violet,  the  cardinals 
in  blazing  scarlet,  the  chivalry  of  Germany 
in  their  coats  of  mail  and  with  glittering 
swords. 

Everything  and  everybody,  in  short, 
was  so  disposed  and  arranged  as  to  dazzle 
the  imagination,  confound  the  understand- 
ing, and  overwhelm  the  judgment.  Luther 
was  ushered  into  the  presence  of  this 
transcendent  array  of  learning,  power, 
authority,  and  impudence — ecclesiastical 
impudence,  which  transcends  every  other 
kind  of  impudence  of  which  we  have 
any  knowledge  or  conception. 

He  was  only  thirty-eight  years  of  age, 
and  was  not  the  Luther  of  later  days, 
26 


asetore  tbc  Diet  at  THIlorms 


obese  and  hearty.  He  weighed  only 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  He 
was  emaciated  and  pallid  ;  he  had  come 
from  hard  study,  and  was  still  ill ;  his 
body  was  consumed  with  disease,  his 
mind  with  apprehension.  He  felt  awfully 
alone.  As  he  approached  the  imperial 
presence  an  old  warrior  greeted  him  with 
the  remark  :  "  My  good  monk,  you  are 
going  a  path  such  as  I  and  our  captains, 
in  our  hardest  fight,  have  never  trodden." 

He  showed  signs  of  bewilderment.  His 
voice  was  feeble,  contrasting  with  the 
voice  of  the  awful  power  that  called  him 
to  account.  This  is  what  makes  him 
human  to  us  and  fascinating,  incompar- 
ably fascinating.  Glorious  human  Martin 
Luther  ! 

He  was  asked  if  he  acknowledged  the 
books  before  him  as  his.  He  answered  in 
a  low  tone  and  a  tone  of  alarm,  "  Yes." 
Will  he  recant  them  ?  He  hesitated,  and 
there  was  a  dead  silence.  He  asked  for  a 
day  in  which  to  frame  an  answer,  and  it 
was  granted. 

The  council  adjourned.  Every  man  of 
27 


XLbe  IHuman  fllartln  Xutbcr 


it  probably  believed  that  the  monk  was 
going  to  retract.  What  else  could  he 
mean  by  delay  ? 

It  was  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  great 
Reformation.  The  second  day  came.  The 
august  diet  reassembled,  and  again  Luther 
was  asked  if  he  will  retract.  He  replied 
at  length,  in  a  dignified  and  astute  argu- 
ment, for  he  had  prepared  himself  well. 
He  asked  for  a  discriminating  judgment  of 
his  books.  They  differed  widely  ;  surely 
they  could  not  all  be  equally  obnoxious. 

But  the  council  was  not  there  for  con- 
sultation with  him,  but  for  judgment  upon 
him.  They  demanded  a  direct  answer  to 
their  question,  will  he  recant  ? 

Then  came  the  memorable,  imperish- 
able words: 

"Since  your  imperial  majesty  demands 

a  direct  answer,  I  will  give  you  one  that 

has  neither  horns  nor  teeth.     Except  I  be 

convinced    by    Scripture    and    reason,    I 

neither  can,  nor  dare,  retract  anything. 

My  conscience  is  a  captive  to  God's  word, 

and  it  is  neither  safe  nor  right  to  go  against 

conscience." 

28 


Xutbcr's  jflgbt  wltb  Xutber 

At  this  point,  according  to  some  reports, 
there  was  a  tremendous  confusion,  in 
which  Luther  was  taunted  by  ecclesiastics, 
and  finally  ended  by  the  exclamation, 
"  Here  I  take  my  stand  ;  I  can  do  no  other- 
wise.    So  help  me  God.     Amen." 

The  council  broke  up,  and  that  was  the 
breaking  up  of  the  Roman  Catholic  power 
in  Germany.  The  beginning  of  the  end 
had  come.  The  Reformation  was  to  go 
forward  ;  German)^  was  lost  to  the  pope 
forever,  Scotland  soon  was  to  be,  and 
England.  The  United  States,  a  new  na- 
tion that  was  yet  to  be,  was  never  to 
come  under  the  Roman,  nor  any  other 
ecclesiastical  domination. 

The  human  Martin  Luther's  fight  with 
the  pope  involved  a  fight  with  the  human 
Martin  Luther.     He  had  his 
conscience  to  fight  as  well   '^"!1"'' ?f'^" 

°  witb  Xutber 

as  the  vicegerent  of  the 
Almighty  at  St.  Peter's.  What  a  vice- 
gerent. What  a  pope  that  conscience 
was.  A  wrong  conscience  upbraids  with 
as  much  severity  as  a  right  one.  It  was 
no  easier  to  make  a  better  man  of  him- 
29 


XLbe  Wuman  ttlartin  Xutbet 

self  than  to  make  a  better  church  of  his 
church. 

It  is  much  easier  to  advocate  civil  service 
reform  than  to  practise  it  on  yourself,  if 
you  are  a  candidate  for  the  presidency. 
He  says:  "  I  feel  how  difficult  it  is  to  lay 
aside  the  scruples  which  I  have  had  so 
long."  "Oh,  how  much  pain  it  has  cost 
me  to  justify  myself  in  standing  alone 
against  the  pope.  How  many  times  have 
I  asked  myself  what  my  enemies  have 
asked  me,  Art  thou  alone  wise  .?  Can 
everybody  else  be  mistaken  ?  " 

He  says  his  suffering,  his  utter  despair, 
cannot  be  conceived  by  others.  He  would 
sometimes  wish  to  pass  a  sponge  over 
what  he  had  written. 

One   dramatic  scene  quickly   followed 
another  in  the  stirring  drama  of  the  Re- 
former's    life.       He    disap- 
'"raartburg  "^  peared  from  the  publicity  of 
the  diet  at  Worms,  and  re- 
appeared in  the  obscurity  of  the  castle  of 
Wartburg.    On  his  way  home  from  Worms 
he  was  spirited  away  to  this  remote  and  se- 
cluded castle  by  his  friends  to  save  his  life. 
30 


In  tbe  Castle  ot  *WHartburg 


Here  he  spent  about  a  year  in  the  disguise 
of  a  knight,  hunting,  writing,  studying, 
translating  the  Bible,  or  meditating  ways 
and  means  for  circumventing  the  pope  and 
promoting  the  Reformation. 

He  was  hard  at  work  on  his  translation 
of  the  Psalms  in  the  lonely  castle  far 
away  in  the  forest,  shut  out  from  the 
world,  cut  off  from  his  followers.  The 
singing  of  the  birds  and  the  sighing  of  the 
winds  were  the  only  sounds  that  reached 
him.  Loneliness  is  a  malady  to  so 
stormy  a  spirit  as  the  human  Martin 
Luther. 

He  was  worn  out  with  hard  study  and 
long  fasting,  and  had  had  little  sleep  or 
recreation.  He  had  forced  his  brain  with 
whip  and  spur.  He  was  afflicted  with  the 
disorders  of  body  and  mind,  brought  on 
by  repeated  violations  of  God's  good 
laws.  Finally  the  outraged  imagination 
took  revenge  upon  the  will  and  overpow- 
ered it,  and  there  rose  before  the  miser- 
able hermit,  a  spectre  such  as  those  that 
haunt  the  sleep  of  the  diseased,  the 
maniac,  or  the  criminal.  Alas,  that  re- 
31 


^be  Human  martin  Xutber 

Hgion  should  have  to  suffer  for  the  indiges- 
tion of  its  teachers  ! 

For  Luther  there  was  but  one  solution 
of  the  apparition  :  it  was  the  devil.  For 
Luther  there  was  but  one  way  of  getting 
rid  of  him,  to  fight.  He  must  take  the 
aggressive.  He  seized  his  inkstand  and 
hurled  it  at  the  spectre,  and  to  this  day 
they  will  show  you  where  the  Reformer's 
inkstand  struck  the — wall. 

This  was  a  very  characteristic  act,  this 
throwing  the  inkstand  at  the  devil.  It 
opens  out  his  nature  to  us,  intellectual, 
psychological,  theological,  and  illogicaL 
It  brings  us  to  one  of  the  forces  that  drove 
the  marvelous  piece  of  human  machinery 
that  we  call  the  human  Martin  Luther,  his 
belief  in  an  evil  being  having  almost  as 
much  power  in  the  world  as  the  Good 
Being  who  made  it.  He  believed  in  the 
devil  beyond  even  the  age  or  his  contem- 
poraries. Some  have  been  led  by  this  to 
question  his  sanity.  He  certainly  was 
unsane  if  not  insane,  as  indeed  any  man 
is  whose  digestive  apparatus  upsets  his 
thinking  apparatus. 

32 


tfn  tbe  Castle  of  TKHartburg 


I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  all  these 
monster  men  were  a  little  cracked,  so  if 
we  are  not  very  much  cracked  we  may 
know  that  we  are  not  very  big  men. 
Luther  was  sincere,  at  all  events,  and  sin- 
cerity is  one  of  the  awful  motive  forces  of 
the  world. 

He  stopped  eating  and  was  found 
stretched  insensible  on  the  floor  of  his 
cell  ;  that  was  the  devil.  He  overworked 
his  brain  and  lost  his  head  ;  that  was  the 
devil.  He  over-excited  his  huge  imagina- 
tion until  he  had  all  the  fantastic  and  pre- 
posterous visions  of  an  opium  eater,  and 
that  was  the  devil.  He  had  the  earache  ; 
that  was  the  devil.  He  never  had  the 
neuralgia,  or  he  would  have  thought  two 
devils  were  fighting  a  duel  on  the  inside  of 
his  head  ;  or  the  rheumatism,  or  he  would 
have  thought  he  had  a  devil  sawing  at 
every  joint. 

He  had  a  knife  in  his  hand,  and  was 
half  minded  to  cut  his  head  off  with  it ; 
that  is  the  devil.  The  devil  rattled  the 
hazel  nuts  in  the  bag  at  night.  If  Luther 
had  eaten  them  before  going  to  bed  the 
33  c 


XLbe  IHuman  flOartfn  Xutbct 

devil  would  have  rattled  them  in  the  Re- 
former's stomach.  He  speaks  of  a  man 
who  tore  off  one  of  Satan's  horns.  Luther 
believed  in  this  devil's  miraculous  power. 
He  could  smite  with  a  malady  that  should 
slowly  destroy  life,  or  could  suddenly  ar- 
rest the  course  of  a  disease.  He  sent  the 
storms,  and  the  winds  were  his  puffmg 
and  blowing. 

He  believed  in  demoniacal  possession, 
that  witchcraft  was  the  devil's  craft,  that 
he  could  transform  women  into  witches 
and  send  them  riding  through  the  air  on 
broomsticks.  He  sometimes  doubted  the 
existence  of  God,  but  he  never  doubted 
the  existence  of  the  devil.  Then  again 
he  was  so  beaten  about  that  he  did  not 
know  whether  God  was  the  devil  or  the 
devil  was  God.  He  encountered  great 
devils  who  were  learned  doctors  in  the- 
ology, some  of  whom  in  the  flesh  are 
sometimes  suspected  of  getting  his  Satanic 
majesty  on  the  wrong  throne. 

He  resorted  to  various  devices  for  put- 
ting Satan  to  flight,  a  glass  of  wine,  a 
strain  on  the  violin,  or  a  long  prayer,  and 
34 


®nc  of  tbc  XorD's  HnotnteO 

always  obliged  the  "old  boy"  to  let  go  at 
last.  All  this  seems  pretty  good  evidence, 
including  his  glass  of  wine,  that  his  devil 
was  of  his  own  creation  and  that  when  he 
put  on  his  hat  he  put  it  on  the — apparition 
at  which  he  threw  his  inkstand.  This 
was  part  of  Luther's  fight,  this  fight  with 
the  devil.  He  was  contending  with,  not 
simply  the  pope,  with  his  wide-spread, 
well-drilled  army  of  cardinals,  bishops, 
priests,  and  monks,  but  with  these  as  the 
instruments  of  a  malign  deity  who  is  dis- 
puting with  a  benign  deity  for  supremacy 
in  the  world.  Such  was  Luther's  fight,  a 
fight  with  the  church,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil. 

Another  motive  force  in  the  great  Re- 
former was  this  :  Martin  Luther  believed 
that  Martin  Luther  was  one 
of  the  Lord's  anointed  with  ®r^coUbc%oxWii 

Hnotnteft 

all  the  prerogatives  of  one — 
just  as  the  pope  did  and  does.    The  kings 
of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  the  rulers 
take   counsel   together   against  the  Lord 
and  against  his  anointed. 

He  says,  if  he  is  restored  to  health  he 
35 


Zbe  Human  martin  Xutbet 

will  by  God's  help  write  against  Erasmus 
and  kill  him.  "  He  has  insulted  my  Christ 
and  must  be  punished."  Also  he  says, 
"I  killed  Munzer,  and  his  death  at  times 
weighed  upon  my  conscience,  but  I  killed 
him  because  he  sought  to  kill  my  Christ." 

The  man  has  not  been  born  who  has  the 
slightest  shadow  of  authority  for  using 
such  language  or  acting  from  such  a  mo- 
tive. When  his  saurkraiit  disagreed  with 
him,  he  charged  it  to  the  devil  ;  when  his 
associates  disagreed  with  him,  they  dis- 
agreed with  God. 

And  yet  what  an  influence  that  motive 
has  been  in  the  history  of  the  church.  It 
has  made  the  "Lord's  anointed"  a  re- 
proach and  horror,  from  Luther  to  Presi- 
dent Taylor  of  the  Mormon  hierarchy. 
The  tap-root  of  Roman  Catholicism  is  this 
assumption  of  police  power  in  the  name  of 
the  Deity,  under  the  name  and  title  of 
the  Lord's  anointed,  and  Luther  carried  it 
over  into  Protestantism,  and  there  some  of 
it  remains  to  this  day.  Any  man  has  it, 
whether  he  proclaims  with  Cromwell,  "  if 
God  shall  give  you  into  my  hands  1  will 
36 


tibe  /Hbonft  /iRarrlcs  a  Iflun 


not  spare  a  man  of  you,"  or  with  a  Prot- 
estant preacher,  that  the  Mormon  religion 
should  be  put  down  by  an  army  with  rifles, 
and  the  infidel  Turks  driven  out  of  the 
missionary's  way  with  bayonets. 

If  MiJnzer,  or  the  Mormons,  or  the  Jews, 
or  the  atheists,  or  the  agnostics,  or  the 
"peculiar  people,"  break  the  law  against 
disorder,  vice,  or  crime,  they  are  to  be 
arraigned  and  punished  by  the  civil  au- 
thority, but  there  is  no  ecclesiastical  tri- 
bunal that  has  authority  over  them  except 
such  as  they  voluntarily  consent  to  obey. 

The  Christian  has  no  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction over  the  infidel,  or  the  theist  over 
the  atheist,  or  the  Gentile  over  the  Jew, 
or  the  Protestant  over  the  Catholic,  or  the 
Catholic  over  the  Protestant,  or  the  Prot- 
estant who  keeps  the  new  Sunday  over 
the  Protestant  who  keeps  the  old  Sabbath. 

He  broke  his  vow  and  married  a  nun. 
Every  old  bachelor  does  that,  especially 
if  by  so   doing  he  can  find 
another  opportunity  for  play-  ^^^^IfX,, 
ing  the  part  of  the  Lord's 
anointed,  who  are  no  more  to  be  desired 
37 


XLbc  TKuman  martin  Xutbcr 

as  head  of  a  house  than  as  head  of  the 
State  or  the  Church. 

He  said:  "If  I  were  to  marry  again  I 
would  carve  an  obedient  wife  for  myself 
out  of  a  block  of  marble,  for  unless  I  did 
I  should  despair  of  finding  one." 

Still,  like  all  men  of  impulses,  the  im- 
pulse of  tenderness  was  among  the  rest. 
The  hardest  men  have  soft  spots,  if  not  in 
their  hearts,  in  their  heads.  He  was 
never  cross  except  when  he  was  crossed. 
It  was  beautiful  in  him  to  send  a  letter  of 
sympathy  to  Tetzel  when  he  was  dying 
of  a  broken  heart  in  the  cloister. 

He  was  fond  of  fun,  and  full  of  it,  after 
he  had  shaken  off  his  monasticism  and 
taken  on  some  flesh.  He  that  putteth  his 
trust  in  the  Lord  shall  be  made  fat.  He 
said  he  would  like  to  give  the  worms  a 
good  fat  doctor  to  feed  upon.  He  aban- 
doned emaciation  as  a  means  of  grace, 
and  the  sour  monk  became  a  jolly  father. 
He  relished  nonsense  and  merry  music 
and  frolic,  that  would  have  broken  the 
heart  of  good  President  Finney,  who  died 
deploring  the  rise  and  progress  of  croquet. 
38 


IHls  lPoverti2 


Luther's  poverty  is  a  farcical  act  in  the 
tragedy  of  his  career.  After  he  was 
married  and  had  a  family 
and  a  home  and  was  more 
than  half-way  through  his  great  wori<  and 
past  the  hardest  of  it,  when  he  had  the 
masses  of  Germany  and  many  of  its 
nobles  and  princes  in  his  following,  he 
was  harassed  by  poverty  and  hectored 
with  debt.  Think  of  it !  Protestantism 
was  rich  ;  Luther  was  poor.  It  is  rich  to- 
day and  many  of  its  preachers  are  starv- 
ing. 

"  I  am  becoming  more  and  more  over- 
whelmed with  debt.  I  shall  be  compelled 
to  solicit  alms  by  and  by."  "I  have 
been  obliged  to  pawn  three  goblets  and 
sell  one."  Think  of  the  leader  of  the 
Reformation  reduced  to  such  straits  ! 

His  strength  was  hunger-bitten.  He 
was  a  dependent  upon  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  whose  remittances  were  becom- 
ing suspiciously  small  and  infrequent. 
Poverty  is  a  fatality.  It  pursues  some 
and  nags  them  clean  out  of  the  world. 
It  follows  others  like  a  ridiculous  caprice. 
39 


Zbc  Muman  fllartin  ILutbct 

There  came  still  another  turning-point. 
This  time  it  was  a  turning-point  for  Chris- 
tendom ;  Protestantism  was 
^"°*  poinr"'"^"  organized.  In  1 529  we  come 
upon  the  word  Protestant. 
An  imperial  diet  was  assembled  at  Spires 
to  take  account  of  Luther's  movement 
and  put  a  stop  to  it.  it  decreed  that  the 
pope's  Bull  against  Luther  must  be  sus- 
tained and  Luther  silenced.  The  Luther- 
ans present,  made  up  of  princes  and  dukes 
and  a  lar^e  following  of  the  highest  re- 
spectability, protested.  The  first  Prot- 
estants were  German  princes. 

Then  we  have  the  Protestants  in  coun- 
cil at  Augsburg,  in  1530,  where  and  when 
their  first  Confession  of  Faith  was  adopted. 
Protestantism  was  sown  in  power  and 
raised  in  power.  The  movement  now 
degenerated  into  a  vituperative  wrangle. 
Learning  and  ignorance,  prelates  high  and 
low,  poured  out  upon  Luther  an  incessant 
torrent  of  malevolent  abuse  ;  but  Luther 
was  more  than  a  match  for  them  in  the 
weapons  of  their  choice. 

He  could  return  worse  than  he  received  ; 
40 


Bnotber  G;urnlngspoint 


he  had  a  genius  for  invective,  and  was 
copiously  endowed  with  the  vocabulary 
of  abuse.  He  delighted  in  the  desolating 
wrath  of  words. 

He  denounced  the  followers  who  dis- 
agreed with  him  with  no  less  acrimony 
than  the  enemies  who  opposed  him  out- 
right. Erasmus  broke  with  him  in  doc- 
trine, and  got  the  better  of  him  in  argu- 
ment, whereupon  Luther  called  him  "a 
viper,  a  bug,  a  serpent,  a  fox,  a  knave, 
and  an  amphibolous  being,"  reminding  us 
of  O'Connell  calling  the  old  Irish  woman 
"the  hypotenuse  of  a  right-angled  tri- 
angle." 

The  anger  that  sustained  him  in  an 
open  fight  with  words  failed  him  in  the 
arena  of  pure  argument.  Luther  is  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  supporting 
power  of  an  angry  temper.  Being  angry 
he  forgot  that  he  ever  heard  the  name  of 
death. 

"When  I  get   angry,  1  forget   for   the 
time   my  physical  maladies.     My  under- 
standing seems  sharpened.     I  never  speak 
better  than  when  I  am  in  a  passion." 
41 


Zbe  IKuman  martin  Xutber 


One  of  our  preachers  says  his  "  faults 
are  not  worth  mentioning."  But  that  is 
just  what  they  are.  They  are  indispen- 
sable to  the  understanding  of  him.  So 
are  any  man's  ;  they  make  his  virtues 
powerful.  His  morbidity  gave  vigor  to 
his  brain  and  sting  to  his  diction.  His 
perceptive  faculties  were  sharpened  by  a 
disordered  nervous  organization. 

He  says,  "  The  fault  is  mainly  in  those 
who  knowing  the  irritability  of  the  dog, 
persist  in  teasing  him."  He  had  a  good 
heart  but  a  bad  temper,  which  is  better 
than  to  have  a  bad  heart  and  a  good 
temper. 

He  would  consent  to  no  alliance  with 
Zwingli  or  Calvin.  The  Reformer  of  Ger- 
many had  no  dealings  with  the  Reformers 
of  England,  showing  how  little  the  "Lord's 
anointed"  are  anointed  by  his  Spirit. 
Luther  was  as  intolerant  toward  those 
who  dared  to  go  farther  than  he  did,  as 
the  pope  was  toward  those  who  went  as 
far  as  Luther  did.  There  was  more  than 
a  jest  in  his  jocosely  calling  himself  the 
German  pope.  Luther  revolted  against 
42 


Bnotber  xrurn(ng*point 


the  intolerance  of  the  pope,  and  was  ex- 
communicated for  it ;  Zwingli  revolted 
against  the  intolerance  of  Luther,  and  was 
repudiated  for  it. 

He  was  horrified  at  the  bloody  deeds 
that  followed  his  revolution,  but  he  was 
not  averse  to  putting  a  stop  to  a  heretic 
by  putting  an  end  to  his  existence.  He 
believed  in  the  right  of  the  State  to  punish 
heresy  and  advocated  the  burning  of 
witches. 

"I  would  have  no  compassion  on  these 
witches  ;  I  would  burn  them  all." 

He  uses  the  same  language  in  speaking 
of  the  peasants,  the  vicious  Papists,  the 
turbulent  Swiss,  Erasmus,  and  the  witches; 
they  should  all  be  disposed  of  without 
mercy  or  toleration ;  they  deserve  the 
wrath  of  God  and  man — God  and  his  vice- 
gerent Luther.  He  speaks  as  having  no 
power  to  do  wrong. 

Now  look  back  to  the  emotional  turbu- 
lence in  the  convent  when  he  set  about 
making  Martin  Luther  a  better  man,  and 
his  church  a  better  church,  and  his  world 
a  better  world.  Did  he  make  himself  a 
43 


XLbc  IHuman  martin  Xutber 

better  man  ?  Did  he  not  confound  feeling 
right  with  doing  right  ?  feeling  religious, 
with  being  religious  ?  Was  ever  a  man 
made  better  by  a  religious  St.  Vitus  dance? 
Did  he  make  his  church  a  better  church 
and  his  world  a  better  world  ?  1  think  he 
did — or  if  he  did  not  his  movement  did. 

He  was  no  more  under  the  influence  of 
Jesus  when  he  used  such  language,  than 
Jesus  was  under  Luther's  influence  when 
he  commanded  Peter  to  put  up  his  sword, 
or  us  to  obey  the  Golden  Rule.  Was  ever 
a  man  thrown  into  an  epileptic  fit  by  read- 
ing the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ? 

Looking    back    now   over    these    four 

hundred  years,  how  far  did  he  get .-'     The 

pope    held    that    there   was 

*Te©cu^'^  no  salvation  outside  of  his 
church ;  Luther  held  that 
there  was  no  salvation  outside  of  his. 
He  believed  in  transubstantiation,  or  the 
real  presence,  to  the  last.  His  theology 
was  made  up  of  slashing  rationalism  and 
rank  sacramentarianism.  He  denounced 
the  pope  for  setting  himself  above  Scrip- 
ture, and  then  set  himself  above  it. 
44 


IHow  afar  DiO  be  (Sett 


He  discredited  the  Epistle  of  Jude  and 
tiie  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

He  said  that  every  man  is  at  liberty 
to  treat  the  Apocalypse  according  to  the 
dictates  of  his  own  mind,  and  the  German 
professors  do  so  treat  that  and  every 
other  book  at  this  day.  He  said  that  if 
the  story  of  Jonah  were  not  in  the  Bible, 
he  would  laugh  at  it,  and  that  the  whale 
could  have  digested  Jonah  in  three  days. 

He  repudiated  the  Epistle  of  James  be- 
cause it  contradicted  that  of  Paul  in  the 
matter  of  faith  and  works — another  proof 
that  his  "The  just  shall  live  by  faith," 
was  a  controversial  cry  rather  than  a 
definite  conviction. 

He  questioned  the  infallibility  of  his  new 
authority,  the  Bible,  as  stoutly  as  he  did 
that  of  his  old  authority,  the  pope.  He 
used  his  reason  and  extolled  its  use,  but 
he  denied  its  use  to  others. 

Congregationalists  will  find  no  Congre- 
gationalism in  Luther.  He  had  no  partial- 
ity for  juvenile  suffrage  as  a  policy  of  the 
church.  He  would  substitute  the  Ger- 
man emperor  for  the  Roman  pontiff.  The 
45 


XLbc  IHuman  fllartin  Xutber 

destiny  of  the  children  which  Jesus  took 
such  pains  to  make  plain,  has  ever  since 
been  the  despair  of  the  ecclesiastics. 

The  pope  would  damn  an  infant  Protest- 
ant, water  or  no  water ;  Luther  would  save 
all  the  infant  Protestants  and  Catholics  if 
they  would  only  stay  long  enough  in  the 
world  to  be  baptized  in  it.  He  held  with 
Augustine  that  we  are  born  lumps  of  per- 
dition, and  if  we  should  die  in  the  act  of 
being  born  we  should  as  a  logical — theo- 
logical— desert  of  that  act,  go  straight  to 
hell  for  the  glory  of  God. 

He  says :  The  human  will  is  like  a 
beast  of  burthen.  If  God  mounts  it,  it 
goes  as  God  wills  ;  if  Satan  mounts  it,  it 
goes  as  Satan  wills.  Nor  can  it  choose 
its  rider.  The  riders,  God  and  the  devil, 
contend  for  its  possession. 

He  gave  an  impulse  to  the  human  mind 
which  it  will  never  cease  to  feel,  and  yet 
his  theory  of  its  dependence  would  para- 
lyze it  forever.  He  was  the  founder  of 
Protestantism,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether 
one-tenth  of  the  Protestants  of  to-day 
would  acknowledge  his  authority  in  the- 
46 


Iprotestantism  %cnt)B  to  jBvile 

ology,  and  he  would  not  recognize  the 
Lutheranism  of  the  present  Germany.  If 
the  world  had  not  gone  beyond  Luther 
both  Luther  and  Protestantism  would 
have  been  a  failure. 

But  let  us  show  him  the  fair  play  which 
he  would  show  if  he  had  lived  in  1883 
instead  of  in  1483.  It  is  not  to  our  credit 
or  to  his  discredit  that  he  lacked  what  we 
have,  time,  four  hundred  years  of  it. 
Another  four  hundred  years,  and  we  will 
have  said  of  us  what  we  say  of  him,  and 
of  Leo  X.  ;  they  were  out  just  four  hundred 
years. 

Those  four  hundred  years  past  and 
these  four  hundred  years  to  come,  and 
all  the  years,  are  bringing  us  back,  back, 
back  to  the  words  of  Luther's  Master 
and  ours,  who  will  be  the  world's  Master 
yet. 

Monseigneur  Capel  says  Protestantism 
has  led  to  evils,  /.  e.,  evils  to  Monseigneur 
Capel.     What  then  has  he 
to  say  of  Catholicism,  which    f'Tl^TZ 

■'  '  Xea^s  to  Evils 

has  led   to   the   greatest   of 
evils  in  his  estimation,  Protestantism  ? 
47 


tEbe  Mum  an  martin  Xutbec 

So  did  the  invention  of  money,  which 
is  a  root  of  all  evils  ;  and  printing — it  has 
done  more  harm  than  smallpox,  and 
smallpox  is  innocence  in  comparison  with 
some  Protestants  and  some  Catholics. 

Nevertheless  we  are  in  favor  of  the 
newspapers,  and  money — if  one  or  two 
men  do  not  get  the  whole  of  it — and  Prot- 
estantism, which  insures  a  fair  hearing 
to  all  the  gods  and  goddesses  that  are 
coming  down  on  us  from  the  English 
Olympus  to  poke  fun  at  our  Anglican 
snobbery  and  lead  us  in  the  way  of  sweet- 
ness and  light. 

Luther  had  to  contend  with  sourness 
and  darkness,  not  to  speak  of  King  Henry 
VIll.,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  by  authority 
of  the  pope. 

Luther  owed  something  of  his  success 

to  his  nationality.     A  German  owes  his 

getting  on  to  his  being  a  German  ;  he  has 

Northern  blood  in  his  veins  and  Viking  iron 

in  his  blood.     He  is  anthracitic  ;  he  burns 

slowly,  but  he  burns  forever.    The  rise  of 

Protestantism  came  of  its  having  its  rise 

in    Germany.     Savonarola's     movement 
48 


ffafllng  IPowers 


failed  because  it  started  in  Italy  and  in 
Savonarola.  Calvin  failed  to  carry  the 
French  partly  because  they  were  French, 
and  partly  because  he  was  Calvin. 

But  German  though  he  was,  with  the 
German  brawn  and  stamina,  Luther  wore 
out  like  an  American  ;  only 
he  wore  out  m  spite  of  the 
climate  ;  we  are  worn  out  and  torn  up  by 
the  climate.  At  sixty-three  he  said,  "I 
am  used  up."  Emperor  William  and  Bis- 
marck have  far  exceeded  that,  but  they 
have  had  no  such  foes  to  fight  as  Luther 
had — conscience  and  that  sort  of  thing. 
He  met  his  last  enemy  as  he  had  met 
every  other,  with  a  shrinking  spirit  and  a 
resolute  front.  He  said  he  could  not  see 
how  Paul  could  feel  about  death  so  forci- 
bly as  he  writes.  He  (Luther)  could  not 
believe  with  respect  to  death  as  stoutly 
as  he  preached,  or  as  stoutly  as  people 
thought  he  believed. 

What   with   his    physical    decline,  the 

bloody  deeds   of  fanaticism   at  Miinster, 

the  loose  lives  of  many  of  his  followers, 

and  the  dissension  among  them,  Luther's 

49  D 


^be  IHuman  fmarttn  Xutber 

great  heart  sinks  within  him,  and  he 
thinks,  "the  latter  days  of  Christ  have 
come,  and  the  last  grand  assault  of  the 
devil  "  is  about  to  take  place. 

His  confidence  in  the  devil  disputes  the 
ascendency  with  his  faith  in  God,  and  he 
exclaims:  "  I  ardently  hope  that  amidst 
these  internal  dissensions,  Jesus  Christ 
will  hasten  the  day  of  his  coming  and 
crumble  the  whole  universe  into  dust." 

"I  am  feeble  and  weary  of  life,  and 
would  fain  bid  adieu  to  the  world  which  is 
given  over  to  the  evil  one." 

"Rather  than  live  forty  years  I'd  give 
up  my  chance  of  paradise." 

He  believes  the  world,  like  himself,  is 
approaching  its  end.  A  friend  says  the 
Emperor  Charles  will  live  to  eighty-four. 
Luther  replies,  "The  world  itself  will 
not  last  so  long.  Ezekiel  tells  to  the  con- 
trary. If  we  drive  forth  the  Turk,  the 
prophecy  of  Daniel  will  be  fulfilled,  and 
then  you  may  rely  on  it,  the  day  of  judg- 
ment is  at  hand." 

Over  three  hundred  years  have  passed 
and  the  Turk  has  just  made  a  pretty  good 
so 


^failing  ipowers 


fight  of  it,  and  there  is  no  likelihood  of 
his  being  driven  forth.* 

Luther  lay  down  to  die  at  Eisleben 
where  he  was  born.  He  died  in  harness. 
He  had  come  there  to  participate  in  a  con- 
ference of  his  church  which,  now  that  he 
was  dying,  was  only  beginning  to  live. 
He  preached  four  times,  and  revised  some 
ecclesiastical  regulations.  He  was  an 
ecclesiastic  to  the  last,  and  an  ecclesiastic 
is  industrious. 

It  was  the  evening  of  the  seventeenth 
of  February,  1546,  more  than  three  hun- 
dred years  ago.  He  retired  for  the  night, 
complaining  of  feebleness  and  pains  and 
inability  to  sleep.  "  If  I  could  only  sleep," 
he  said.  They  give  him  a  soothing  drug. 
He  slept,  slept,  and  wakened  and  prayed. 
He  told  the  watchers  to  "pray  that  the 
gospel  may  extend,  for  it  is  menaced  by 
the  pope  and  the  council  of  Trent." 

He  repeated  according  to  the  German 

iln  this  year  (iSg?)  he  has  made  a  still  better  fight  than 
against  Russia  in  1883.  But  as  many  of  the  evils  deplored  by 
Luther  came  from  the  division  among  Protestants,  so  the 
Turk's  triumph  to-day  has  come  because  of  the  lack  of 
European  concert  [Ed.]. 

51 


Ube  THuman  fllartln  Xutber 


custom,  three  times  the  words,  "  Into  thy 
hands  1  commend  my  spirit.  Thou  hast 
redeemed  me,  O  Lord  God  of  truth." 

His  eyes  closed  suddenly,  and  he 
swooned  away,  but  the  physicians  suc- 
ceeded in  reviving  him,  and  he  took  one 
more  look  on  his  friends  and  family. 

He  was  asked,  "Do  you  die  firm  in 
the  faith  you  have  taught .-'  "  He  opened 
his  eyes  wide  and  looked  intently  upon 
the  old  friend  who  asked  the  question, 
and  answered  it  in  one  word,  "Yes." 
It  was  his  last  word.  There  could  be 
no  last  word  more  becoming  to  Martin 
Luther. 

He  said,  "Yes,"  and  fell  asleep.  The 
soul  of  the  mighty  leader  and  Protestant 
came  back  to  answer  to  all  the  world  and 
for  all  time,  "Yes."  Martin  Luther  stood 
firm. 

He  became  paler  and  paler,  and  colder 
and  colder ;  his  pulse  ceased,  his  breath 
ended  with  one  deep  sigh,  and  his  sighing 
ended  forever,  reminding  us  of  one  of  his 
most  striking  and  searching  utterances, 
"Our  faith  is  an  unutterable  sigh." 
52 


XLbe  IRctrospect  anO  IProspcct 

1.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  not 
regained  any  nation,  or  any  of  the  terri- 
tory it    lost    four    hundred 

vpar«;   flan  Ube  tRetrospect 

years  ago.  ^^^  prospect 

2.  It  has   lost  since  then 

what  gave  it  half  its  hold,  the  temporal 
power.     The  papal  State  has  disappeared. 

3.  It  has  virtually  surrendered  in  every 
contest  with  science.  St.  George  Mivart 
and  Professor  Proctor  would  not  have 
been  tolerated  by  Leo  X.,  nor  would  he 
have  put  a  cardinal's  cap  on  Newman's 
head.  Leo  XIII.  represents  quite  another 
age.  The  stars  in  their  courses  have  won 
in  their  fight  with  the  papacy  that  de- 
stroyed Galileo,  who  was  right ;  the 
church  moves  as  well  as  the  world.  The 
church  moves  because  the  world  moves. 

4.  Protestantism  as  a  system  has  made 
no  more  progress  in  Catholic  countries 
than  Catholicism  has  in  Protestant  coun- 
tries. 

5.  Protestantism  has  gained  one  nation, 
and  a  powerful  one.  This  is  the  most 
formidable  claim  that  either  party  can 
make  for  these  four  hundred  years. 

53 


^be  IHuman  fulartin  Xutber 

6.  However,  we  should  bear  in  mind 
that  this  Protestant  nation  was  created  by 
emigration,  developed  by  moderation,  not 
by  conflict  as  Germany  was,  and  the 
Protestant  majority  makes  no  progress 
with  the  Catholic  minority  or  the  Catho- 
lic minority  with  the  Protestant  majority. 
But  the  Catholicism  of  this  country  has 
not  the  grip  of  that  of  Italy  or  France,  and 
that  of  France  and  Italy  is  not  that  of 
France  and  Italy  in  Luther's  times. 

7.  The  disintegrated  Protestant  Ger- 
many of  Luther,  has  been  consolidated 
into  the  first  nation  of  the  continent. 
The  Luther  celebrations  in  Germany  now 
are  not  religious  or  ecclesiastical,  but 
political,  the  jubilation  of  a  political  power 
of  which  Luther  never  dreamed ;  but 
Luther  unwittingly  laid  its  corner-stone. 

8.  The  Lutheran  branch  of  Protestant- 
ism is  the  farthest  from  being  alive  of 
any  branch  of  it.  The  Roman  Church 
shows  more  life  at  its  extremities  than 
Luther's  church  does  at  its  heart. 

9.  Catholicism  has  just  as  much  mis- 
sionary activity  as  Protestantism. 

54 


^be  IRetrospect  an&  prospect 

10.  In  comparing  the  two  forms  of 
Christianity,  Catholicism  and  Protestant- 
ism, we  should  bear  in  mind  that  Catholi- 
cism has  no  discussion  within  itself,^  Prot- 
estantism carries  with  it  many  questions, 
serious  and  frivolous,  ecclesiastical,  theo- 
logical, moral,  and  social,  that  are  grinding 
on  one  another  and  must  be  settled  with. 
We  are  necessarily  retarded  by  the  tem- 
porary consequence  of  a  right  position  ; 
they  are  helped  by  the  temporary  ad- 
vantage of  a  wrong  position.  Give  us 
time  enough  and  the  day  is  ours.  The 
present  is  on  their  side ;  the  future  is  on 
ours.  Protestantism  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  Romanism  but  something  to  fear 
from — Protestantism. 

11.  As  neither  Romanism  nor  Protest- 
antism is  what  it  was  in  Luther's  day,  the 
final  result  in  the  far  future  will  not  be  the 
Protestantism  or  the  Romanism  of  our  day. 

*ThIs  can  hardly  be  said  at  the  present  time  (1897),  at  least 
In  this  country.  As  is  well  known  there  Is  a  very  distinct  di- 
vergence of  opinion  between  Archbishop  Ireland  and  Arch- 
bishop Corrigan.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  there  is  more 
unity  among  Protestants  than  appears,  and  far  less  among 
Roman  Catholics  [Ed.]. 

55 


Zbc  THuman  tlllartfn  Xutber 


12.  In  that  final  result  we  shall  have 
no  part  or  lot.  We  are  not  responsible 
for  the  four  hundred  years  past  or  the 
four  hundred  years  to  come.  We  are 
only  responsible  for  a  few  brief  years, 
each  for  his  own  conscience,  to  his  own 
conscience,  for  what  that  conscience  re- 
quires him  to  believe  and  to  be. 

Yes,  Martin  Luther's  followers  stand 
firm  by  the  logic  of  his  teachings  ;  the  in- 
alienable right  of  every  conscience  to 
have  its  own  creed,  or  to  have  none,  with 
no  other  conscience  daring  to  molest  or 
make  it  afraid,  and  that  without  the 
Christian's  morality  there  can  be  no  such 
thing  as  the  Christian  religion,  and  with- 
out religion,  no  religious  authority  can  be 
accepted. 

"Here  we  take  our  stand.  We  can  do 
no  otherwise,"  and  we  found  our  confi- 
dence in  the  future  of  our  cause  on  the 
noble  sentiments  of  Luther's  hymn  : 

A  safe  stronghold  our  God  is  still, 
A  trusty  shield  and  weapon  ; 

He'll  help  us  clear  from  every  ill 
That  hath  us  now  o'ertaken. 
56 


tTbe  IRetrospect  an5  iprospect 

With  force  of  arms  we  nothing  can, 
Full  soon  were  we  down  trodden  ; 

But  for  us  fights  the  proper  man, 
Whom  God  himself  hath  bidden. 

Ask  ye,  who  is  this  same? 
Christ  Jesus  is  his  name, 
The  Lord  Sabaoth's  Son  ; 
He  and  no  other  one. 
Shall  conquer  in  this  battle. 


57 


JOHN  WESLEY 


II 


THE  name  of  the  man  who  founded  the 
Methodist  Church  is  John  Wesley. 
The  man  who  did  that 

A  A      u        i    J-    J        li.    ^'2  parentage 

deserves  to  be  studied.     It 

will  interest  and  instruct  us  to   make  a 

study  of  his  biography.* 

Where  was  he  born  ?  At  Epworth, 
England.  When  was  he  born  ?  In  1703. 
When  did  he  die  ?     In  1791. 

His  father,  rector  of  the  English  church 
at  Epworth,  seems  to  have  been  a  good 
and  faithful  father,  but  his  mother  had  the 
first  fashioning  of  the  boy  Jack,  as  he  was 
called,  and  gave  him  his  first  impressions, 
ideas,  thoughts,  impetus,  Susannah  Wes- 
ley, mother  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley, 
and  seventeen  others — let  us  speak  of 
her  with  reverence  and  think  of  her  as 
one  of  the  great  women,  and  one  of  the 
mighty  mothers  in  Israel. 

*I  shall  follow  Tyerman's  "Life  and  Times  of  Wesley." 
61 


Jobn  imiesleB 


She  ruled  well  her  own  household. 
She  taught  John  Wesley  at  one  year  of 
age  that  he  had  a  right  to  cry,  but  that  he 
had  no  right  to  bawl  and  yell  and  scream. 
This  was  tact.  She  taught  self-restraint 
at  one  year  of  age.  She  never  gave  her 
children  what  they  cried  for.  They  were 
washed  and  put  to  bed  at  eight  o'clock, 
after  they  had  said  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
She  nipped  all  rudeness  and  selfishness  in 
the  bud.  She  acted  upon  the  proverb, 
"  A  child  left  to  himself  bringeth  his 
mother  to  shame"  (Prov.  29  :  15). 

At  six  years  of  age  John  was  plucked 
as  a  brand  from  the  burning  parsonage. 
At  eight  years  of  age  he  came  near  dying 
of  smallpox. 

He  spent  five  years  at  a  good  school  in 
London,  during  which  time  he  never  had 
a  mouthful  of  food  more  solid 
than  bread.  Why?  Because 
it  was  the  custom  for  the  older  boys  to 
take  not  only  their  share  of  the  meat,  but 
the  share  of  the  younger  boys  also. 

Little  England  is  a  little  pig — ditto, 
little  America.  This  is  one  of  the  evi- 
62 


©iforD  "Clnlversitis 


dences  that  we  are  evolved  from  pigs — we 
behave  so  like  them. 

At  this  London  school  he  attracted  at- 
tention by  qualities  for  which  he  was 
afterward  famous — industry  and  persist- 
ency and  the  remarkable  patience  with 
which  he  bore  insult  and  injuries.  While 
his  elders  were  knocking  him  around  and 
stealing  his  meat,  he  treated  his  juniors  to 
an  oration.  He  was  fond  of  getting  them 
together  and  haranguing  them.  When 
asked  by  his  teacher  why  he  preferred  the 
society  of  his  inferiors  to  that  of  his  equals 
among  the  boys,  his  reply  was,  "Better 
to  reign  in  hell  than  serve  in  heaven." 

He  went   from   the    London   school   to 
Oxford  University.     He  was   entitled  to 
forty  pounds  a  year  for  hav- 
ing attended  this  school,  the      ^^f^/g't^ 
Charterhouse ;  such  schools 
are  the  glory  of  England.     His  entrance 
was  obtained  by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham. 
Here  he  was  at  Oxford  University,  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  in  poor  health  and  in 
debt,  bleeding  at  the  nose  and  bleeding  at 
the  pocket.     And  here  comes  a  letter  from 
63 


5obn  "McBlCQ 


his  mother — no  money  in  it.  She  had 
none  to  give.  Her  husband  had  been  in 
prison  for  debt.  Her  boy  had  been 
entered  at  the  London  school  as  the  son 
of  an  impoverished  clergyman. 

But  the  words  of  a  mother  to  her  boy — 
they  are  "apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of 
silver." 

Dear  Jack  :  I  am  uneasy  because  I  have 
not  heard  from  you. 

Aye,  uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears 
the  crown  of  motherhood. 

Inform  me  of  the  state  of  your  health  and 
whether  you  have  any  reasonable  hopes  of  being 
out  of  debt.  1  am  most  concerned  for  the  good, 
generous  man  that  lent  you  ten  pounds,  and  am 
ashamed  to  beg  a  month  or  two  longer,  since  he 
has  been  so  kind  as  to  grant  us  so  much  time 
already.  We  were  amused  by  your  uncle's  coming 
from  India,  but  I  suppose  these  fancies  are  laid 
aside. 

I  wish  there  had  been  anything  in  it,  for  then 
perhaps  it  would  have  been  in  my  power  to  have 
provided  for  you.  But  if  all  things  fail  I  hope 
God  will  not  forsake  us.  We  have  still  his  good 
providence  to  depend  on. 

Dear  Jack,  be  not  discouraged.  Do  your  duty. 
64 


IHis  Companions 


Keep  close  to  your  studies  and  hope  for  better 
days.  Perhaps  after  all  we  shall  pick  up  a  few 
crumbs  for  you  before  the  end  of  the  year. 

Dear  Jacky,  1  beseech  Almighty  God  to  bless 
thee. 

SUSANNAH  WESLEY. 

When  she  was  dying  she  said,  "  Chil- 
dren, as  soon  as  I  am  released,  sing  a  song 
of  praise." 

At  twenty-four  years  of  age  we  find 
him  shaking  off  uncongenial  acquaint- 
ances and  choosing  only  such  as  were  in 
accord  with  his  spiritual-mindedness. 

He  says  that  when  he  resolved  to  be 

not  a    nominal    but  a  real  Christian,  he 

found  that  his  acquaintances 

,    „     .  Mis  Companions 

were  as  ignorant  of  God  as 

he  was.  Only  he  knew  his  own  igno- 
rance and  they  did  not  know  theirs.  Even 
their  harmless  conversation  damps  his 
good  resolutions. 

So  he  ceased  to  return  their  visits  and 
their  visits  ceased.  That  was  the  right 
way.  When  you  pray  to  be  delivered 
from  evil,  answer  your  prayer  by  keeping 
out  of  evil  company.     If  you  would  not 

E  65 


5obn  WLeslCQ 


be  led  into  temptation,  do  not  allow  your- 
self to  be  led  into  the  society  of  the 
tempter. 

At  twenty-four  years  of  age  he  became 
curate  to  his  father,  who  was  sixty-five 
and  palsied. 

One  of  his  earliest  sermons  is  char- 
acteristically outspoken  and  plain-spoken. 
He  reproves  those  preachers  who  wash 
their  hands  of  stubborn  texts  that  will  not 
bend  to  their  purpose,  or  texts  that  too 
plainly  touch  upon  the  reigning  vices  of 
the  places  in  which  they  preach.  His 
congregation  is  described  as  "  unpolished 
wights,  as  dull  as  asses,  and  impervious 
as  stones."  It  may  be  easy  enough  to 
find  sermons  in  stones,  but  it  is  not  so 
easy  to  preach  sermons  to  stones. 

At  twenty-six  he  became  a  tutor  in  the 

University   of   Oxford,  and    here    began 

what  is  called  the  "  Metho- 

ube  flcetbobist  dist  Movement."    The  place 

was   Oxford,    England,   the 

time,  1729. 

It  was  begun  by  Charles,  not  by  John. 
Charles  Wesley  was  a  fellow  of  Christ 
66 


tlbe  /iRetboOist  /iRovement 


College.  He  had  suddenly  turned  from  a 
life  of  frivolity  to  one  of  pious  observ- 
ances. He  left  his  frolicsome  behavior 
and  began  to  attend  the  communion  with 
great  regularity. 

His  brother  John  joined  him,  as  did  a 
few  others.  Their  regularity,  so  con- 
spicuous in  the  midst  of  a  universal  ir- 
regularity, drew  the  name  "Methodists," 
and  says  John  Wesley,  "As  the  name 
'Methodist'  was  new  and  quaint,  it  clave 
to  them  immediately  and  from  that  time." 
He  says  it  was  given  in  allusion  to  an 
ancient  sect  of  physicians  who  taught 
that  almost  all  diseases  might  be  cured  by 
a  specific  method  of  diet  and  exercise. 

The  name  was  used  in  England  long 
before  it  was  applied  to  Wesley  and  his 
friends.  In  a  sermon  preached  in  1639, 
the  preacher  exclaimed,  "  Where  are  now 
our  plain  packstaff  Methodists,  who  esteem 
all  flowers  of  rhetoric  in  sermons  no 
better  than  stinking  weeds." 

If  there  be  "Methodists,"  or  any  others, 
who  so  esteem  the  flowers  of  rhetoric, 
they  are  wrong.  Jesus  Christ  used  a 
67 


5obn  "Meelcs 


flower  of  rhetoric  when  he  said,  "  Behold 
the  lilies  of  the  field." 

Whatever  be  the  origin  of  the  word, 
there  is  no  doubt  of  its  being  applied  to 
Charles  Wesley's  following  at  Oxford,  or 
its  becoming  then  and  there  and  thence- 
forth a  name  of  inextinguishable  power 
and  imperishable  honor.  So,  as  the  first 
disciples  of  Christ  were  called  Christians 
in  derision  at  Antioch,  the  first  to  lift  up 
a  standard  against  the  license  of  the 
church  of  that  day  were  derisively  called 
Methodists  at  Oxford. 

While  the  first  step  and  stand  were 
taken  by  Charles,  the  leadership  fell  upon 
John,  for  the  very  simple  reason  that 
John  was  a  born  leader  and  Charles  was 
not ;  John  was  the  founder  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church. 

At  this  period  John  Wesley  was  twenty- 
six  years  of  age,  and  is  described  as 
having  an  air  of   authority, 

«(0  personalitie   .     ^      ^       .  , , 

but   not   of   arrogance.     He 

was  handsome  and  spiritual-looking  ;  his 

hair  was  long  and  silken  ;  his  eye  sparkled 

with  benevolence  and  decision  blended. 

68 


TKis  iPcrsonalitTS 


The  impress  of  his  glorious  mother  was 
upon  him.  He  was  such  a  gentleman  as 
only  such  a  mother  can  train.  A  move- 
ment which  was  destined  to  surpass  all 
other  Protestant  movements  in  taking 
hold  of  the  ignorant  masses  was  begun 
by  a  man  of  the  highest  education.  The 
man  who  founded  the  Methodist  Church 
was  a  learned  man,  a  scholar,  a  school- 
made  man  as  distinguished  from  what  is 
called  a  self-made  man.  Every  man  is  a 
self-made  man  who  makes  the  most  of  his 
circumstances. 

As  we  have  seen,  Methodism  was 
organized  in  1729.  In  1733  there  were 
twenty-seven  Methodists,  followers  of 
Wesley,  at  Oxford.  These  were  soon 
reduced  to  five,  and  but  for  John  Wesley 
they  would  have  been  reduced  to  nobody. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  constancy 
and  persistency  of  Wesley,  at  thirty 
years  of  age,  in  contrast  with  the  incon- 
stancy of  his  followers.  They  were 
perpetually  falling  away  or  running  away  ; 
they  had  not  the  root  of  the  matter  in 
them. 

69 


Jobn  "Mcelc^ 


Wesley  attributes  his  first  spiritual  im- 
pulse to  the  Moravians  and  obtained  his 
first  idea  of  a  religious  organization  from 
them.  While  the  germ  was  Moravian, 
the  modifications  and  the  additions  were 
such  as  circumstances  and  his  own 
sagacity  suggested.  The  Methodist  class 
was  suggested  by  the  Moravian  band. 
Indeed  Wesley  established  both  band  and 
class. 

The  movement  was  no  sooner  under 
way  than  the  wicked  rose  up  against  it 
and  the  righteous  took  counsel  against  it. 

At  Bristol,  England,  while  he  was 
preaching  the  mob  shouted,  cursed,  and 
swore  around  the  place.  A 
Catholic  priest  in  the  con- 
gregation cried  out,  "Thou  art  a  hypo- 
crite, a  devil,  an  enemy  to  the  church!" 
A  curate  of  the  Church  of  England,  on  the 
other  hand,  published  him  as  a  Papist. 
The  bells  were  rung  to  drown  his  voice. 

He  was  refused  admittance  to  the  sacra- 
mental table  of  the  Church  of  England, 
together   with   his    brother    Charles   and 

their  converts. 

70 


foiobbed 

At  Pensford  a  bull  was  forced  among 
the  people,  and  the  table  on  which  Wesley 
stood  was  torn  to  atoms  by  the  savages. 
At  Whitechapel  a  herd  of  cattle  was  driven 
among  the  worshipers.  At  Cardiff,  while 
Charles  Wesley  was  preaching,  women 
were  kicked,  and  their  clothes  were  set  on 
fire  by  the  rockets  thrown  into  the  con- 
gregation. The  Bible  was  wrested  from 
the  preacher's  hands,  one  of  the  mob  de- 
claring that  he  would  persecute  the  Metho- 
dists to  his  dying  day,  if  he  had  to  go  to 
hell  for  it  (as  he  probably  did).  The 
houses  in  which  the  preachers  lodged  were 
assaulted  and  the  windows  smashed  in. 
At  Hampton  women  were  pulled  down- 
stairs by  the  hair  of  their  heads,  and  men 
were  thrown  into  a  hole  full  of  noisome 
reptiles.  A  ruffian  struck  him  on  one 
cheek  and  he  turned  the  other  also,  which 
so  abashed  the  ruffian  that  he  dropped  his 
head  and  skulked  away. 

At  Wolsal  John  Wesley  was  completely 

in  the  hands  and  power  of  the  mob,  and 

it   is   marvelous  that    he   escaped   alive. 

He  was  struck  several  times  with  an  oaken 

71 


5obn  Wicelcs 


club.  One  struck  him  on  the  breast,  and 
another  on  the  mouth  with  such  force  that 
the  blood  gushed  out.  He  was  dragged 
through  the  streets  and  pulled  by  the  hair, 
one  man  exclaiming,  "What  soft  hair  he 
has  !  " 

He  asked  them  if  they  were  willing  to 
hear  him  speak,  whereupon  they  shouted  : 
"  No,  no  ;  knock  out  his  brains.  Down 
with  him  !     Kill  him  !  " 

Wesley  asked :  ' '  What  evil  have  1  done  ? 
Which  of  you  all  have  I  wronged  in  word 
or  deed  ?  "  Then  he  began  to  pray,  and 
just  then  the  ringleader  of  the  mob  turned 
suddenly  in  his  favor  and  delivered  him, 
" Follow  me,"  he  said,  "and  no  man  shall 
hurt  a  hair  of  your  head." 

This  man  was  so  impressed  with  Wes- 
ley's appearance  and  behavior  that  he  not 
only  delivered  him  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
mob  but  afterward  became  one  of  his  fol- 
lowers and  lived  to  the  age  of  eighty-five 
in  the  fear  of  God,  and  was  always  telling 
how  God  stayed  his  hand  when  it  was 
lifted  against  Wesley's  life.  When  he 
was  asked  what  he  thought  of  Wesley 
72 


rtlobbeJ) 

during  the  assault,  he  replied  :  "  I  thought 
he  was  a  man  of  God  and  God  was  on  his 
side,  when  so  many  of  us  could  not  kill 
one  man." 

Of  the  same  peril  Wesley  himself  says : 
"  A  little  before  ten  o'clock  God  brought 
me  safe  to  Wednesbury,  having  lost  one 
flap  of  my  waistcoat,  and  a  little  skin  from 
one  of  my  hands.  It  came  into  my  mind, 
that,  if  they  should  throw  me  into  the 
river  it  would  spoil  the  paper  in  my  pocket. 
For  myself,  I  did  not  doubt  that  I  should 
swim  across,  having  but  a  thin  coat  and  a 
light  pair  of  boots." 

A  woman  who  had  been  one  of  his  con- 
verts fell  away  and  turned  so  against  him 
that  she  resolved  to  do  him  an  injury. 
She  accordingly  invited  him  to  her  house, 
threw  him  down  and  cut  off  his  long 
beautiful  locks  on  one  side.  And  so  he 
appeared  in  the  pulpit,  those  who  sat  on 
his  cropped  side  wondering  at  his  taste, 
and  those  who  sat  on  the  other  side  not 
knowing  that  he  had  been  cropped. 

Then  the  Pilate  of  the  State  joined 
hands  with  the  Herod  of  the  Church,  and 
73 


5obn  TKHesle^ 


John  Wesley  and  his  friends  were  charged 
by  the  civil  authority  with  inciting  the  dis- 
orders of  which  they  were 

©ppoettion      ^^     victims,   and    arraigned 
of  tbe  State  '  ° 

before  the  magistrates.     At 

one  place  a  wagon-load  of  Methodists  were 

carried   before  a  magistrate,  who   asked 

what  they  had  done.    Then  some  one  said  : 

"  They    have   converted    my  wife.     She 

used  to  have  such  a  tongue  !     Now  she  is 

as   quiet   as   a   lamb."     Whereupon    the 

magistrate   replied:    "Take   them   away 

and  let  them  convert  all  the  scolds  of  the 

town." 

The  Church  of  England  pulpits  were 
closed  against  him,  and  clergymen  of  the 
Church  of  England  who  affiliated  with 
Wesley  were  insulted  during  the  service. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Manning's  church- 
yard was  used  for  fighting  cocks.  People 
turned  their  backs  upon  him  while  he  was 
reading  prayers  or  preaching.  His  choir 
was  obstreperous — the  only  obstreperous 
choir  I  ever  heard  of.  One  man  came 
into  the  church  during  the  service  with  a 
pipe  in  his  mouth  and  a  pot  of  beer  in  his 
74 


flftatrimons 


hand.  Some  sat  in  the  belfry  ringing  the 
bells  and  spitting  on  the  heads  of  the 
worshipers. 

He  was  pursued  with  what  he  describes 
as  "pious  venom."  Every  conceivable 
variety  of  calumny  was  set  afloat  against 
him  by  some  of  his  own  household  of 
faith,  of  whom  he  exclaims:  "And  yet 
these  are  good  Christians,  these  whisper- 
ers, talebearers,  backbiters,  evil  speakers. 
Just  such  Christians  as  murderers  and 
adulterers."  Backbiters  and  murderers 
classed  together  !  The  worst  of  these 
backbiters  who  tried  to  murder  him  was 
his  wife. 

You  have  heard  of  his  matrimonial  mis- 
adventure. He  married  a  widow  and 
caught  a  Tartar.     And    her 

.      ,  n      ,■  .  flDatrimons 

tart  reflections,  he  says, 
"Like  drops  of  eating  water  on  the  mar- 
ble, at  length  have  worn  my  spirits 
down."  Yet  he  says  he  could  not  say, 
"Take  thy  plague  away  from  me,"  but 
only,  "  Let  me  be  purified,  not  con- 
sumed." 

She  proceeded  to  purify  him  by  tearing 
75 


5obn  "Meele^ 


his  hair  out  by  the  fistful.  She  was  once 
caught  by  one  of  Wesley's  friends  in  the 
act  of  dragging  him  about  the  floor  by  the 
hair  of  his  head.  She  made  accusations 
against  him  of  the  most  villainous  and 
calumnious  kind,  but  not  a  particle  of  the 
mud  sticks  to  his  name. 

She  signs  her  letters:  "  Your  affection- 
ate wife,"  and  her  tombstone  says,  "She 
was  a  woman  of  exemplary  piety." 

But  then  you  know  a  tombstone  is  like 
a  corporation — it  has  no  body  to  be  burned 
or  soul  to  be  damned.  I  heard  lately  of  a 
church  that  starved  their  preacher  to 
death  and  are  now  collecting  for  his  monu- 
ment. He  asked  for  bread  and  they  gave 
him  a  stone — a  tombstone. 

The  widower  of  this  specimen  of  exem- 
plary piety  says  he  believed  the  Lord  over- 
ruled this  painful  business  to  his  good.  "  If 
she  had  been  a  better  wife  1  might  have 
been  unfaithful  in  the  great  work  to  which 
God  has  called  me."  But  1  have  a  higher 
opinion  of  John  Wesley  than  to  think  his 
fidelity  to   his  work   depended   upon   his 

having  his  hair  pulled  by  a  vicious  wife, 
76 


/IBatrlmong 


and  a  higher  opinion  of  Divine  Providence 
than  to  think  he  would  require  such  pen- 
ance. He  might  well  thank  God  for  mak- 
ing him  an  itinerant  preacher,  with  such 
"a  charge  to  keep"  as  he  had. 

He  wrote  in  favor  of  celibacy. 

Nothing  could  daunt  the  purpose  or 
dampen  the  ardor  of  the  glorious  man  who 
founded  the  Methodist  Church. 

He  had  a  lamblike  spirit,  but  he  was 
lion-mettled.  Once  when  driving  to  a 
preaching  appointment,  they  came  to 
where  the  sands  were  overflowed  and 
perilously  deep  with  water.  The  driver 
hesitated,  but  Wesley  put  his  head  out  of 
the  window  and  exclaimed,  "Take  the 
sea,  take  the  sea,"  and  in  they  went. 
The  driver  who  tells  the  story,  says  that 
he  expected  to  be  drowned. 

Wesley  asked,  "What  is  your  name, 
driver  ?  " 

"Peter." 

"  Peter,  fear  not ;  thou  shalt  not  sink." 

And   they  did    not,   but   passed   safely 
over,  and  Wesley,  drenched  to  the  skin, 
proceeded  to  fill  his  appointment. 
77 


3obn  TWlesIeis 


No  sooner  did  the  attacks  of  the  mob 

cease  than  he  was  attacked  by  a  fever. 

The  physicians  told  him  he 

wtfl  <ion6uming  ^^^^  ^^^^^     Wesley  replied 

that  he  could  not,  because 
he  had  several  appointments  and  must 
preach  as  long  as  he  could  speak.  And 
off  he  went,  but  down  he  came.  For 
three  days  he  lay  more  dead  than  alive. 
His  tongue  swelled,  his  pulse  could  not  be 
felt;  his  convulsions  were  violent.  His 
friends  abandoned  hope.  Six  days  after- 
ward he  was  up  and  at  it  again.  He  was 
then  seventy-two  years  of  age. 

He  says  of  himself,  "  I  can  face  the 
north  wind  at  seventy-seven  better  than 
I  could  at  twenty-seven."  "  I  do  not  ad- 
mire fair-weather  preachers." 

Like  Luther,  Wesley  was  very  fond  of 
music.  Indeed  all  the  Wesleys  were,  for 
it  was  a  passion  in  the  family.  He  at- 
tended the  oratorio  performances  and 
listened  to  them  with  rapture,  and  criti- 
cised their  performers  wherein  he  con- 
sidered them  at  fault. 

But  his  greater  passion  was  evident  here 
78 


%  /iBetboDist 


too.  He  reveled  in  the  religious  senti- 
ment of  the  famous  oratorios  and  thought 
this  sentiment  joined  with  the  music 
might  make  an  impression  upon  even  rich 
and  honorable  sinners. 

Never  was  a  man  more  appropriately 
called  a  "Methodist,"  if  that  designation 
turns  upon  the  word  and 
article  of  method.  A  more 
methodical  man  never  lived.  He  ran  all 
to  method,  intellectually,  personally,  and 
religiously.  He  was  as  methodical  as  a 
clock.  He  said  :  "  Any  time  for  doing  a 
thing  was  no  time  for  doing  it." 

He  wrote  by  method,  talked  by  method, 
walked  by  method,  went  to  bed  and  rose 
by  method.  His  religious  devotions  were 
performed  with  all  the  regularity  known 
to  a  convent,  and  his  secular  duties  were 
as  rigidly  conformed  to  a  system  as  are 
those  of  a  military  camp. 

It  came  of  the  structure  of  his  mind, 
the  necessity  of  his  nature  ;  it  made  the 
type  of  his  religion.  Formal  observance 
was  both  the  cause  and  the  effect  of 
spiritual  life. 

79 


5obn  TKHesIcis 


He  enjoins  his  followers:  "Let  all  of 
you  meet  in  band.  As  soon  as  the  assist- 
ant has  fixed  your  band  make  it  a  point 
of  conscience  never  to  miss  without  an 
absolute  necessity.  If  you  constantly 
meet  your  band,  1  make  no  doubt  that 
you  will  constantly  meet  your  class. 
Whoever  misses  his  class  twice  together 
thereby  excludes  himself,  and  the  preacher 
ought  to  put  out  his  name." 

His  catechism  of  his  preachers  was 
close  and  rigid. 

"  Do  you  rise  at  four  ? 

"  Do  you  pray  at  five  ,-' 

"Do  you  recommend  the  five-o'clock 
hour  for  private  prayer  ? 

"  Do  you  fast  once  a  week  ? 

"Do  you  constantly  attend  the  church 
and  sacraments  ? 

"  Do  you  know  the  Methodist  doctrine 
and  the  Methodist  plan  ? 

"  Do  you  know  the  rules  of  the  society 
and  the  bands  ?    Do  you  keep  them  ? 

"Have  you  considered  the  twelve  rules 
of  a  helper,  especially  the  first,  tenth,  and 
twelfth,  and  will  you  keep  them  ? 
80 


a  ^etboDist 


"Will  you  preach  every  morning  and 
evening,  endeavoring  not  to  speak  too 
loud  or  too  long,  not  lolling  with  your 
elbows  ? 

"  Have  you  read  the  '  Rules  for  action 
and  utterance'? 

"Will  you  meet  the  society,  the  bands, 
the  select  society,  and  the  leaders  of 
bands  and  classes  in  every  place  ? 

"Will  you  diligently  and  earnestly  in- 
struct the  children  and  visit  from  house 
to  house  ? 

"  Have  you  read  the  '  Minutes  '  and  are 
you  willing  to  conform  to  them  ? 

"  Have  you  read  the  *  Sermons '  and  the 
'  Notes  on  the  New  Testament,'  the  '  Plain 
Account '  and  the  *  Appeals  '  ? 

"Do  you  take  snuff,  or  tobacco,  or 
drams  ?  " 

To  a  preacher  in  Ireland  he  wrote : 
"Use  all  diligence  to  be  clean.  What- 
ever clothes  you  wear  let  them  be  whole. 
No  rents,  no  tatters,  no  rags.  Mend  your 
clothes,  or  I  shall  never  expect  to  see  you 
mend  your  lives.  Let  none  evor  see  a 
ragged  Methodist.     Clean    yourselves  of 


8i 


5obn  "mcelcs 


lice  and  the  itch,  you  and  your  families. 
A  spoonful  of  brimstone  will  cure  you  of 
the  itch." 

He  not  only  abstained  from  the  use  of 
spirituous  liquors  except  as  medicine,  but 
he  denounced  them  as  liquid  fire,  and 
those  who  sell  them,  except  for  medicine, 
as  poisoners  and  murderers. 

He    published    in     1760,    "Advice    to 

Methodists  with  regard  to   Dress."      He 

would     not     advise     them 

Concerning  S)re8B    ,       ....        .,        ^^       , 

to  imitate  the  Quakers  in 
those  little  particularities  of  dress  which 
can  answer  no  possible  end  but  to  distin- 
guish them  from  other  people.  To  be 
singular  merely  for  singularity's  sake  is 
not  the  part  of  the  Christian.  He  did 
advise  them  to  imitate  the  Quakers  in  the 
neatness  and  plainness  of  their  apparel. 
He  disapproved  of  velvets,  silks,  fine 
linen,  jewelry,  earrings,  finger  rings, 
necklaces,  lace,  ruffles,  and  all  ornamenta- 
tion. 

"  Wear  nothing  of  a  glaring  color,  noth- 
ing made  in  the  height  of  fashion,  nothing 

apt  to  attract  the  eyes  of  bystanders." 
82 


Concerning  I>re0S 


The  biographer  asks,  "What  will  the 
fashionable  followers  of  Wesley  say  to 
this  ?  "  They  may  say  that  if  any  cos- 
tume of  that  period,  or  of  this,  is  calculated 
to  attract  the  eyes  of  bystanders,  it  is  that 
of  those  who  array  themselves  in  the 
height  of  the  fashion  dictated  by  John 
Wesley  or  George  Fox. 

If  these  are  not  particularities  of  dress 
which  distinguish  the  wearers  from  all 
other  people,  and  make  them  singular,  for 
singularity's  sake,  there  is  nothing  in  the 
way  of  costume  that  can  accomplish  that 
object.  Moreover,  the  fact  is  that  that 
object  was  accomplished.  The  costume 
of  the  followers  of  Wesley  made  them 
conspicuous  and  singular,  as  the  costume 
of  the  followers  of  George  Fox  made  them 
conspicuous  and  singular. 

There  is  just  as  much  singularity  in 
being  extremely  unfashionable  as  there  is 
in  being  extremely  fashionable.  Both  are 
extremely  foolish.  There  is  just  as  much 
vanity  under  a  religious  costume  as  there 
is  under  an  unreligious  or  an  anti-religious 
costume. 

83 


5obn  TXXcslcQ 


There  are  two  classes  of  people  who 
should  say  nothing  about  their  own  piety  ; 
those  who  have  some,  and  those  who 
have  none.  Piety  will  speak  for  itself,  if 
one  has  any  to  speak  of. 

In  answer  to  those  preachers  who  said 
they  had  no  taste  for  reading,  Wesley 
said,  "  Contract  a  taste  for  it,  or  return 
to  your  trade."  To  those  who  complained 
that  they  had  no  books,  he  offered  to  give 
books  to  the  value  of  five  pounds. 

They  were  to  give  special  attention  to 
the  children,  for  whom  he  wrote  a  volume 
called  "  Instructions  for  Children."  "I 
reverence  the  young,  because  they  may 
be  useful  after  I  am  dead." 

To  those  who  said,  "I  have  no  gift  for 
this,"  he  replied,  "Gift  or  no  gift,  you 
are  to  do  it,  else  you  are  not  called  to  be 
a  Methodist  preacher." 

John  Wesley  did  not  believe  that  igno- 
rance was  the  mother  of  devotion.  So  far 
from  believing  that,  he  looked  upon  it  as 
the  enemy  of  devotion,  and  made  war 
upon  it  as  such. 

He  set  an  example  of  industry  and  as- 
84 


1Hf0  Self*Den(al 


siduity  rarely  to  be  met  with  in  history,  and 
insisted  that  his  preachers  should  follow 
his  example.  They  read  and  studied  sys- 
tematically, daily,  and  imparted  their  in- 
formation to  others.  He  told  his  preachers 
to  spend  at  least  five  hours  in  the  twenty- 
four  in  reading  the  most  useful  books. 
He  made  short  and  sharp  work  of  the  plea 
that  only  the  Bible  should  be  read.  He 
calls  this,  "rank  enthusiasm,"  and  in- 
stances a  man  who  began  by  reading  only 
the  Bible  and  ended  by  reading  neither 
the  Bible  nor  any  other  book.  He  told  his 
preachers  that  if  they  needed  no  book  but 
the  Bible,  they  had  gotten  beyond  Paul ; 
he  needed  other  books. 

The  self-denial  of  the  man  who  founded 
the  Methodist  church  is  worthy  the  ad- 
miration and  imitation  of  all 

,       , ,     ,  mie  Self  s&enlal 

who  belong  to  that  or  any 
other  church.     He  did  not  call  upon  others 
to  do  what  he  would  not  do  himself;  he 
did   not    persuade   others   to   give,    give, 
give,  and  never  give  a  penny  himself. 

All    great    religious    movements    have 
been   marked  largely  by  the  benevolent 
85 


5obn  TlClesIes 


element ;  almsgiving,  helping  the  help- 
less and  giving  to  the  poor.  The  orders 
of  the  Catholic  Church  make  much  of  this. 
The  Ritualists  of  England  make  no  less  of 
it.  All  religious  brotherhoods  and  sister- 
hoods are  devoted  to  this  idea  of  benevo- 
lence, even  to  making  it  a  penance  and 
a  sacrament  and  a  work  meet  for  repent- 
ance. 

The  Methodist  movement  turned  to  the 
poor  and  destitute  at  once.  John  Wesley 
sacrificed  his  own  ease  and  comfort  at 
once  for  their  sake.  He  says  he  gave 
away  all  that  was  left  after  providing  for 
his  own  necessities.  When  he  received 
thirty  pounds  a  year  he  gave  away  all 
over  twenty-eight,  when  he  received  sixty 
and  ninety  and  one  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds  a  year,  he  continued  to  live  on 
twenty-eight,  and  gave  the  rest  to  the 
poor. 

Wesley  was  as  careful  to  be  no  finan- 
cial burden  to  his  hearers  as  was  the 
Apostle  Paul.  He  made  no  charge  and 
received  no  salary,  and  there  was  no 
dodge  or  fraudulent  pretention  to  superi- 


86 


Mts  Selfs&enlal 


ority  in  this.  Salary  was  recompense,  and 
anytiiing  in  the  way  of  recompense  was 
salary. 

A  lady  presented  him  with  a  chaise  and 
a  pair  of  horses  and  left  him  a  legacy  of 
one  thousand  pounds,  but  it  was  soon 
gone,  given  to  the  poor.  His  poor  sister, 
who  had  been  deserted  by  what  some 
people  call  a  husband,  her  natural  pro- 
tector, applied  for  some  of  it,  but  she  was 
too  late.     He  writes  : 

"Dear  Patty,  you  do  not  consider; 
money  never  stays  with  me ;  it  would 
burn  me  if  it  did.  1  throw  it  out  of  my 
hands  lest  it  should  find  a  way  into  my 
heart." 

He  was  once  too  poor  to  get  his 
hair  cut.  He  became  the  proprietor  of  a 
large  book  concern,  whose  profits  were 
also  given  away  in  charity  and  for  the 
benefit  of  the  cause  he  loved  so  well. 
There  is  good  authority  for  the  statement 
that  he  gave  away  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  pounds  after  he  had  es- 
tablished his  own  book  concern. 

He  tells  his  followers:  "If  you  are 
87 


5obn  "Meelcs 


not  in  pressing  want  give  something.  If 
you  earn  but  three  shillings  a  week  and 
give  a  penny  of  it,  you  will  never  want." 
He  says  he  is  ashamed  of  their  penuri- 
ousness  if  they  are  not,  and  that  if  every 
one  would  give  according  to  his  means 
there  would  be  money  enough  to  meet  all 
the  necessities  of  all  the  societies.  So 
it  is  now.  He  detested  rich  and  stingy 
Christians. 

At  the  conference  of  1766  we  find  the 
soul  of  the  man  who  founded  the  Metho- 
dist Church  hectored  with 
church  debts.  The  debts 
on  the  one  hundred  chapels  throughout 
the  kingdom  amounted  to  nearly  sixty 
thousand  dollars.  Wesley  said :  "  We 
shall  be  ruined  if  we  go  on  thus." 
Ruined  !  Why,  bless  thy  devout  soul, 
Saint  John,  we  disciples  of  the  meek  and 
lowly  Jesus  thrive  and  flourish  on  a  debt 
twice  as  large  as  that,  on  one  church,  the 
Church  of  the  Blessed  Mortgage. 

He  writes  to  one  preacher,  "You  must 

go   to   York,  Leeds,  and  Bradford.     Our 

rich    men    subscribe   twenty   shillings   a 
88 


■ffn  ©corgia 

year,  and  neither  Boardman,  Bumstead, 
nor  Oliver,  can  move  them.  They  want 
a  hard-mouthed  man.  I  beg  you  either 
mend  them  or  end  them." 

The  difficulty  is  to  either  end  them  or 
mend  them.  One  of  them  said:  "True 
1  do  not  give  much,  but  if  you  knew  how 
it  hurts  me  to  give  that,  you  would  not 
ask  me  for  any  more." 

His  three  favorite  rules,  which  he 
elaborated  in  one  of  his  sermons,  were, 
"Gain  all  you  can,"  "Save  all  you 
can,"  "Give  all  you  can." 

In  the  spring  of  1736  he  landed  in 
Savannah,  Georgia,  with  his  brother 
Charles  and  three  other 
Methodists.  Savannah  then 
had  forty  houses.  Georgia  was  a  feeble 
colony,  and  the  only  foretaste  of  what 
we  are  now  as  a  nation  was  to  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  the  highest  officeholder 
was  accused  of  stealing  the  public  money. 

His  success  in  Georgia  seems  to  have 

been  small.     The  Indians  were  obdurate 

and  the  colonists  indifferent  to  his  form  of 

religion.      Besides,  the    Moravians   were 
89 


5obn  Wieelc^ 


before  him  there  as  in  England,  and  were 
doing  his  work  in  very  much  his  way. 
Worse  than  all,  he  got  into  several  rows, 
a  row  with  the  ecclesiastical  authorities, 
and  a  row  with  the  civil  authorities.  The 
upshot  of  the  broil  was  that  Wesley 
escaped  by  night  in  a  rowboat,  and  after 
many  perils  reached  England. 

Curiously  enough,  in  Savannah,  where 
both  Wesley  and  Whitefield  labored,  Meth- 
odism has  but  a  feeble  hold,  while  the  de- 
nomination planted  then  and  there  is  the 
largest  and  the  most  nearly  universal  of 
any  in  the  United  States. 

His  wit  was  quiet  but  quick.     With  him 

wit  and  wisdom  went   together ;    it  was 

witty  wisdom  and  wise  wit. 

Di8  TiDlit 

Once,  in  the  impatience  that 
came  of  his  marvelous  industry,  when 
kept  waiting  for  his  carriage  he  exclaimed, 
"  I  have  lost  ten  minutes  for  ever." 

A  friend  said,  "  You  have  no  need  to  be 
in  a  hurry." 

"Hurry!  I   have    no   time  to  be   in  a 

hurry !  " 

He    said    to    one    of    his    preachers, 
90 


Sball  Women  ipreacb? 


"  Tommy,  touch  that  dock.     Do  you  feel 
anything  ?  " 

"No." 

"Now  touch  that  nettle.  .  .  Tommy, 
some  men  are  like  docks,  stupid,  insensi- 
ble ;  others  are  like  nettles — touch  them 
and  they  resent  it.  You  are  a  nettle, 
Tommy ;  but  I  would  rather  have  to  do 
with  a  nettle  than  a  dock." 

Once  while  sitting  with  some  friends  at 
the  excellent  dinner  of  a  rich  Methodist,  a 
canting  preacher  rolled  up  his  eyes  and 
sighed  and  said  to  Wesley  : 

"O  sir,  things  are  very  different  from 
what  they  were  formerly.  There  is  very 
little  self-denial  among  Methodists  now." 

Wesley  replied,  "My  brother,  here  is  a 
fine  opportunity  for  self-denial." 

We  now  come  upon  the  question  whether 
women  have  any  right  to  go  anywhere  in 
the   world   and    preach   the 
gospel   to   any  creature,    in    ^''"bT" 
the  shape  of  what  the  biogra- 
pher  first    calls   a   "godly  female,"  and 
then  a  "  preacheress."    He  means  a  godly 
woman  and  good  preacher  by  the  name 
91 


5obn  "Wneeles 


of  Sarah  Crosby,  who  says  :"  My  soul 
was  much  comforted  in  speaking  to  the 
people,  as  the  Lord  has  removed  all  my 
scruples  respecting  the  propriety  of  my 
acting  thus  publicly."  She  may  be  the 
original  of  Dinah  Morris  in  "Adam  Bede." 

Nothing  so  forcibly  illustrates  the  rever- 
ence in  which  Wesley  was  held  by  his 
followers  as  the  fact  that  this  good  woman 
and  good  preacher  after  having  all  her 
scruples  about  preaching  removed  by  the 
Lord,  writes  to  ask  Wesley  what  he  thinks 
of  her  conduct — in  a  word,  if  he  concurs 
with  the  Lord. 

Wesley's  answer  is  worth  your  hearing. 
It  is  written  with  a  caution  which  con- 
tinues unto  this  day,  and  which  very  well 
represents  the  attitude  of  some  toward 
the  question  in  at  least  three  great  de- 
nominations. 

"I  think  you  have  not  gone  too  far," — 
she  had  gone  so  far  as  to  preach  to  several 
hundred  people  to  their  great  delight  and 
edification, — "  you  could  not  well  do  less." 
He  tells  her  to  tell  them  that  she  does  not 
take  upon  herself  any  such  character  as 
92 


Mis  Peculiar  ^«pe  of  ipietg 

that  of  a  preacher,  she  just  tells  them 
what  is  in  her  heart.  "  I  do  not  see  that 
you  have  broken  any  law.  Go  on  calmly 
and  steadily." 

She  did  go  on  till  her  death  in  1804, 
when  there  were  several  women  preachers. 
Such,  says  his  biographer,  "  was  the  com- 
mencement of  female  preaching";  he 
means  preaching  by  women  among  the 
Methodists.  It  was  never  sanctioned  by 
Wesley's  Conference,  but  was  practised 
to  the  end  of  Wesley's  life. 

To  another  he  says,  her  justification 
lies  in  her  having  what  he  had,  "an  ex- 
traordinary call." 

"  It  is  plain  to  me  that  the  whole  work 
of  God  termed  Methodism  is  an  extraordi- 
nary dispensation  of  his  Providence." 

He  should  have  put  his  right  to  ordain 
the  superintendents  he  sent  to  America 
on  the  same  ground,  and  saved  himself 
from  an  ecclesiastical  tangle  which  is  the 
only  muddy, spot  in  his  clear  head. 

His  peculiar  type  of  piety  I  shall  not  go 
into  in  a  controversial  way.  There  are 
as  many  types  of  Christian  piety  as  there 
93 


3obn  Wicelc^ 


are   kinds   of    temperament,  varieties   of 
Christian  culture,  and  schools  of  Chris- 
tian exegesis.    This  must  be 
3obn  meeicre  acknowledged  by  all  who  ac- 
of  ipiet?       knowledge  that  George  Fox 
was  as  clearly  entitled  to  be 
called  a  Christian  as  John  Knox,  or  Au- 
gustine as  Luther,  or  Channing  as  Calvin, 
or  Elizabeth  Fry  as  Madame  Swetchine, 
or  John  Wesley  as  Oliver  Cromwell,  or 
Dr.  Peabody  as  Dr.  Pusey. 

Concerning  one  peculiarity  of  John 
Wesley's  peculiar  type  of  piety  there  can 
be  no  question,  and  with  respect  to  it 
there  can  be  no  controversy.  Whatever 
else  his  theory  of  holiness  meant,  it 
meant,  keep  your  fingers  out  of  your 
neighbor's  pocket ;  whatever  else  his  idea 
of  perfection  implied,  it  implied  perfect 
honesty. 

"  Never  think  of  being  religious  unless 
you  are  honest."  "  What  has  a  thief  to 
do  with  religion  ?  "  "  It  is  high  time  to 
return  to  the  plain  word  :  He  that  feareth 
God  and  worketh  righteousness  is  ac- 
cepted of  him." 

94 


B(5  Ipecultar  V^^pc  of  pietg 

He  believed  in  mixing  politics  and  re- 
ligion in  such  proportions  as  to  give  re- 
ligion the  ascendency  and  keep  politics 
from  putrefaction. 

So  you  see  that  whatever  else  his  per- 
fectionism meant,  it  meant,  keep  your 
fingers  out  of  your  neighbor's  pocket  if 
you  love  your  neighbor  as  yourself.  Who- 
ever it  may  designate  as  free  from  sin,  it 
puts  the  brand  of  sinners  deserving  to  be 
damned  upon  all  venal  politicians  and  cor- 
rupt officeholders,  especially  if  they  hold 
one  office  in  the  Church,  and  one  in  the 
State  at  the  same  time — a  union  of  Church 
and  State  which  does  not  seem  to  weigh 
very  heavily  upon  the  consciences  of  those 
American  Christians  who  are  conscien- 
tiously opposed  to  the  union  of  Church 
and  State. 

His  perfection  included  the  perfect  keep- 
ing of  the  Golden  Rule,  and  excludes 
Christian  bankers  who  receive  the  hard 
earnings  of  the  poor  one  day  and  close 
their  doors  the  next.  In  one  of  his  ad- 
dresses to  his  followers  he  exclaimed : 
"Who  does  as  he  would  be  done  by  in 
95 


5obn  "Mesle^^ 


buying  and  selling  ?     He  who  keeps  not 
this  law  is  written  down  a  knave." 

The  ticket  which  John  Wesley  gave  to 
the  class  meeting  was  written  in  these 
words  by  his  own  hand,  "1  believe  the 
bearer  to  be  one  who  fears  God  and  works 
righteousness."  But  with  all  his  plain 
preaching  many  would  still  profess  relig- 
ion and  practise  dishonesty. 

Wesley  noted  what  preachers  do  not 
make  as  much  note  of  as  they  should.  It 
is  the  small  amount  of  accurate  knowl- 
edge communicated  by  the  preacher  to  his 
hearers.  He  was  amazed  at  the  ignorance 
of  his  hearers,  on  topics  in  which  he  took 
the  greatest  pains  to  instruct  them. 

"I  study  to  speak  as  plainly  as  I  can, 
yet  I  frequently  meet  with  those  who 
have  been  my  hearers  for  many  years, 
who  are  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  re- 
pentance, faith,  and  holiness." 

After  all  his  plain  preaching  and  explicit 
teaching  he  says  most  of  them  have  a 
religion  which  consists  of  a  sort  of  con- 
fidence that  "Christ  will  justify  them 
while  they  live  to  themselves." 
96 


2l0  a  prcacbcr 


Wesley  as  a  preacher  is  worthy  of 
study.  He  was  clear  of  ornament,  direct, 
and  lucid.  He  could  be  ele- 
gant  and  simple  without 
being  effeminate.  His  education  was  not 
an  enervation.  There  is  that  strength  in 
his  language  which  is  inseparable  from  the 
language  of  those  who  use  language  as  a 
means  to  an  end  instead  of  as  an  end. 

He  was  searching  and  severe  without 
reveling  in  phraseological  severity.  He 
was  too  good  a  fisher  of  men  to  suppose 
that  he  could  catch  them  with  the  mere 
terminology  of  professional  preaching. 
Like  his  Master,  he  used  his  greatest 
severity  on  the  most  polished. 

Once  he  preached  to  an  audience  of 
elegant  rascals,  "Ye  serpents,  ye  gener- 
ation of  vipers,  how  can  ye  escape  the 
damnation  of  hell  ?  "  He  was  told  that 
that  was  suitable  for  Billingsgate.  He 
replied:  "In  Billingsgate  I  should  preach 
from  the  text,  '  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God 
which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.'" 

He  reveals  knowledge  of  human  nature 
G  97 


3obn  TKUcsleis 


and  tact  in  controlling  it.  Speaking  of 
Billingsgate  fish  market,  whence  we  get 
the  word,  Wesley  and  a  friend  were 
standing  near  it  once  while  two  women 
were  bandying  the  worst  epithets  of  the 
place,  when  his  friend  said,  "  Come,  sir, 
let  us  go  ;  I  cannot  stand  this." 

Wesley  replied,  "Stay,  Sammy,  stay 
and  learn  how  to  preach." 

Wesley's  movement,  like  those  of 
Finney  and  other  revivalists,  was  accom- 
panied by  physical  and  men- 

iPbsefcal  Effects  ^   ,    ^     ^      ^j^j^j^ 
of  bis  iPreacbina 

generally  regarded  as  not 
only  unnecessary,  but  mischievous.  There 
is  no  better  evidence  of  their  being  both 
preventable  and  unnecessary  than  the 
fact  that  nothing  of  the  kind  has  ever 
been  seen  at  Mr.  Moody's  meetings,  al- 
though they  have  been  composed  of  the 
very  class  most  fruitful  in  these  spasms 
and  convulsions. 

This   movement,  like   every  other    re- 
ligious  movement,  drew  a   certain   tem- 
perament,   attracted   and    repelled,  fasci- 
nated and  alienated,  as  it  does  to  this  day, 
98 


IPbgsical  Bffccts  of  bis  ipreacbing 

and  as  every  denomination  does  to  this 
day. 

John  Wesley  believed  that  no  special 
form  of  church  government  is  commanded 
in  the  New  Testament,  and  was  quite 
content  to  let  every  person  be  persuaded 
in  his  own  mind  as  to  which  was  best,  or 
even  to  live  and  die  good  Christians  with- 
out ever  knowing  which  was  best. 

Wesley's  movement  differs  from  that 
of  all  great  religious  reformers  in  this :  it 
was  an  attempt  at  a  reformation  without 
a  secession.  Herein  it  failed  and  herein 
Wesley  was  involuntarily  and  uncon- 
sciously inconsistent  with  himself.  He 
says  his  design  was  to  leave  his  followers 
in  the  lap  of  their  mother,  the  Church  of 
England.  But  his  American  followers 
had  no  mother.  I  have  a  lively  appreci- 
ation of  those  who  have  a  mother  church, 
but  I  have  more  sympathy  with  those 
who  have  no  mother  church. 

Wesley   said    he    dared    not   separate 

from   the    Church  of   England  ;  it  would 

be  a  sin  to  do  so  ;  but  it  would  be  no  less 

a  sin  for  him  not  to  vary  from  it  in  preach- 

99 


5obn  TKHc0lei2 


ing  abroad,  praying  extempore,  and  or- 
ganizing societies.  His  preachers  were 
forbidden  to  baptize  or  administer  the 
sacraments.  They  were  extraordinary 
messengers  of  God,  not  to  supersede  the 
ordinary  messengers,  but  to  provoke 
them  to  jealousy. 

But  he  did  not  stop  there.  His  brother 
Charles  implored  him,  as  he  implored  his 
preachers,  "In  God's  name,  stop  there." 
Charles  and  others,  both  in  the  English 
Church  and  among  the  Methodists,  main- 
tained that  ordination  was  separation  ;  but 
John  Wesley  could  not  see  it  in  that  light, 
although  he  seems  to  have  foreseen  its 
working,  for  he  writes  in  1786  at  eighty- 
three  years  of  age  : 

"  The  preachers  of  a  dissenting  spirit 
will  probably  after  our  death  set  up  for 
themselves  and  draw  away  disciples  after 
them." 

To  such  preachers  he  unwittingly  gave 
his  sanction  in  the  most  effective  and 
solemn  manner.  He  ordained  and  set 
them  apart  as  superintendents  and  thus 
qualified  and  authorized  them  to  administer 


lPbi26tcal  Bffects  of  bis  ipreacbfng 

the  sacraments  to  the  fifteen  thousand 
American  Methodists.  These  were  soon 
called  bishops.  The  name  of  the  office 
was  changed  but  its  nature  remained  the 
same,  a  superintendency.  The  number 
of  bishops  necessarily  increased,  also  the 
number  of  those  who  intended  to  be,  the 
Lord  willing,  and  if  they  knew  their  own 
hearts. 

Charles  Wesley  was  right ;  ordination 
was  separation.  John  Wesley  had  pro- 
moted what  he  dreaded.  He  set  up  the 
American  Methodists,  and  they  set  up 
themselves.  So  that  Wesley  may  be 
said  to  be  the  only  involuntary  founder 
of  a  great  religious  society  the  world  has 
ever  known.  He  builded  greater  than  he 
knew. 

Calvin  did  what  he  intended  to  do  when 
he  organized  a  Church  and  State  of  his 
own  at  Geneva  ;  Luther  rejoiced  in  leaving 
his  reformation  stamped  with  his  name  ; 
Knox  gloried  in  the  separation  and  inde- 
pendence of  Presbyterianism  in  Scotland  ; 
the  English  Church  was  a  popular  seces- 
sion of  national  proportions  ;  the  boast  of 


Jobn  TIDleelc^ 


Puritanism  is  that  of  a  new  sect  in  a  new 
land  ;  but  Wesley's  fame  is  that  of  the 
founder  of  an  independent  denomination 
as  powerful  to-day  as  any  of  these,  who 
died  denying  its  necessity  and  opposing 
its  formation. 

Tyerman  calls  Wesley  the  autocrat  of 
the  Methodists ;  and  he  certainly  was. 
His  reply  to  those  who  com- 
plained of  this  and  wished  to 
share  in  Methodist  legislation,  is  interest- 
ing. It  contains  a  history  of  his  autocracy 
and  of  early  Methodism  as  well,  in  a  nut- 
shell. 

"In  November,  1738,  several  persons 
came  to  me  in  London  and  desired  me  to 
advise  and  pray  with  them.  I  said  if  you 
will  come  on  Thursday  night,  I  will  help 
you  as  well  as  I  can.  More  and  more 
then  desired  to  meet  with  them,  till  they 
were  increased  to  many  hundreds.  Here 
commenced  my  power,  namely,  a  power 
to  appoint  when  and  where  and  how  they 
should  meet,  and  to  remove  those  whose 
life  showed  they  had  no  desire  to  flee  from 
the  wrath  to  come." 
102 


(^wict  power 


The  fact  is,  that  authority  with  Wes- 
ley was  an  individuality  and  a  necessity. 
He  was  one  of  those  great  men  whose 
mental  organization  fitted  them  for  doing 
what  Divine  Providence  gave  them  an 
opportunity  to  do.  He  followed  his  bent 
in  obeying  his  call. 

His  call  was  just  what  he  regarded  that 
of  the  women  whom  he  encouraged  to 
preach  and  that  of  his  lay  preachers,  "  an 
extraordinary  call,"  and  like  all  extraor- 
dinary calls  it  only  comes  to  those  who 
are  extraordinarily  adapted  for  obeying  it. 

John  Wesley  rises  before  us  a  religious 

force  of  marvelous  quietness.     He  was  a 

wonderful  example  of  quiet- 

.  ^  ,  , ,        ®uiet  power 

ness  and  confidence.  He 
studied  to  be  quiet.  The  noise  of  his 
movement  was  made  by  his  enemies,  and 
with  them  rests  the  whole  blame  and 
shame  thereof.  His  was  the  quietest  ex- 
hibition of  power  of  which  we  have  any 
account.  He  brandished  no  sword  whose 
glitter  stirred  the  blood  ;  he  bestrode  no 
war  horse  that  neighed  courage  to  its  rider ; 

he  led  no  party  whose  cheers  supported 
103 


5obn  "Mcsle^ 


the  spirits.  He  was  no  stormy  and  dra- 
matic Luther.  He  was  no  Cromwell,  put- 
ting his  enemies  to  the  sword  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord.  He  was  no  Knox,  tearing 
down  churches  to  get  rid  of  their  mem- 
bers. He  was  no  Calvin — he  did  not  burn 
anybody  for  disagreeing  with  him. 

The  oak  under  which  John  Wesley 
preached  his  first  sermon  in  America  is 
still  standing.  The  system  which  he  there 
planted  has  struck  its  roots  deep  in  the  civ- 
ilization of  the  republic,  and  its  branches 
have  gone  out  into  all  the  land,  and  its 
leaves  will  be  for  the  healing  of  the  nations 
long,  long  after  the  oak  in  Georgia  has 
fallen  and  disappeared. 

Others  may  be  named  before  him  as 
theologians,  as  philosophers,  as  preachers  ; 
but  no  man  of  history  had  a  more  elevating 
and  commanding  character,  a  more  Christ- 
like life,  and  no  man  among  them  all  pro- 
duced a  more  enduring  or  more  benefi- 
cent influence  upon  his  fellow-men  than 
the  man  who  founded  the  Methodist 
Church. 

Tyerman  calls  him,  at  eighty  years  of 
104 


Wis  2)eatb 

age,  **  a  flying  evangelist."  A  flying  evan- 
gelist at  eighty  years  of  age  !  Do  we  hear 
that  ?  We  who  are  forever  complaining 
and  whining  over  our  poor  little  contempt- 
ible services,  what  do  we  think  of  that  for 
zeal  and  consecration  ? 

We  have  hurried  through  his  glorious 
life,  and  now  come  to  his  glorious  death. 
He  died  with  his  armor  on. 
He  died  in  the  midst  of  the 
battle,  at  the  head  of  his  hosts,  under  the 
banner  of  the  cross.  It  was  more  a  trans- 
lation than  a  death.  He  was  eighty-eight 
years  of  age. 

His  beautiful  face  retained  its  beauty  to 
the  last,  his  eye  its  lustre,  his  form  its 
symmetry,  his  spirits  their  elasticity,  his 
intellect  its  vigor,  his  conscience  its  keen- 
ness, his  heart  its  benevolence,  his  Meth- 
odism its  fervor,  his  faith  in  Christ  its 
steadfast  zeal. 

He  tottered  on  the  pulpit  stairway, 
whereupon  the  whole  congregation  burst 
into  tears. 

He  had  his  wish  that  he  so  often  ex- 
pressed in  his  favorite  verses : 
105 


5obn  WLcelc^ 


Oh  that  without  one  lingering  groan 
I  may  the  welcome  word  receive, 

My  body  with  my  charge  lay  down, 
And  cease  at  once  to  work  and  live. 

But  when  he  ceased  to  work  he  began 
to  live.  Both  he  and  his  work  will  live 
forever. 

It  was  the  morning  of  the  first  of  March, 
1 791,  when  the  messenger  came  for  him 
and  found  him  singing: 

I'll  praise  my  maker  while  I've  breath  ; 
And  when  my  voice  is  lost  in  death, 

Praise  shall  employ  my  nobler  powers ; 
My  days  of  praise  shall  ne'er  be  past. 
While  life  and  thought  and  being  last, 

Or  immortality  endures. 

Utterly  exhausted,  but  inexpressibly 
happy,  he  looked  out  upon  the  watchers 
standing  around  his  bed,  and  said,  "  Pray 
and  praise."  They  sank  upon  their  knees 
and  obeyed  his  request,  then  rose  and 
bent  over  him.  He  shook  hands  with 
each  and  said  farewell,  but  still  he 
lingered. 

The  lingering   sunset  of  that  lofty  life 
filled  the  room  with  light  and  peace. 
106 


Ws  Deatb 

He  exclaimed,  "The  Lord  of  hosts  is 
with  us,  the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge. 
Pray  and  praise." 

Again  they  fell  on  their  knees  around 
the  chariot  of  the  ascending  Elijah,  and 
again  they  rose  and  gathered  around  to 
listen  to  his  parting  words. 

So  the  night  wore  away  and  the  morn- 
ing came — and  joy  cometh  in  the  morning. 
It  was  the  morning  of  an  immortal  day  to 
him.  He  exclaimed,  "I'll  praise — I'll 
praise,"  and  at  last  he  said,  "Farewell," 
and  the  chariot  started. 

His  body  has  long  since  gone  to  decay 
in  the  midst  of  the  great  world  of  London, 
but  the  name  which  I  there  saw  passing 
away  with  the  crumbling  stone,  is  written 
on  the  hearts  of  millions  in  imperishable 
reverence. 

The  church  that  was  so  cruel  to  herself 
as  to  close  her  pulpits  against  him,  re- 
ceives a  monument  to  his  memory  in  the 
most  venerable  of  her  cathedrals.  So  is 
his  cause  vindicated  and  his  wrongs  re- 
dressed. 

By  the  humble  grave  in  City  Road,  by 
107 


3obn  TIGlcslcs 


the  marble  medallion  in  Westminster  Ab- 
bey, and  above  all  by  the  vast  instru- 
mentality that  he  left  behind  to  carry  on 
his  work,  we  are  reminded  of  the  man  who 
founded  the  Methodist  Church,  gathered 
as  wheat  fully  ripe  and  fully  ready  for  the 
reaper. 

We  bend  to-day  o'er  a  hallowed  form, 

And  our  tears  fall  quietly  down, 
As  we  look  again  on  the  warrior  face, 
With  its  tranquil  peace  and  its  patient  grace, 

And  hair  like  a  silver  crown. 

We  know  through  what  labors  his  hands  have 
passed, 

Through  what  rugged  places  his  feet, 
And  we  joy  in  the  presence  of  his  brow  so  white, 
As  radiant  now  with  heaven's  own  light. 

As  it  shines  in  the  ripened  wheat. 

Then  faithfully  toil  that  in  death  we  may  come. 

Not  only  with  blossoms  sweet, 
Not  bent  with  doubts  or  burthened  with  fears, 
Or  with  dead,  dry  husks  of  life's  wasted  years, 

But  laden  with  golden  wheat. 


1 08 


NORMAN  MACLEOD 


Ill 


THE  great-grandfather  of  our  subject, 
Donald  Macleod,  lived  in  the  moun- 
tain solitudes  of  the 
Island  of  Skye,  not  far 
from  Dunvegan  Castle.  He  was  "a  good 
man,  and  the  first  to  introduce  regular 
family  worship."  This  grandfather  was 
educated  for  the  church,  and  became  min- 
ister of  the  Highland  parish  which  made 
the  subject  of  "Reminiscences  of  a  High- 
land Parish."  He  had  a  small  salary  and 
a  large  family. 

Sixteen  children  were  born  in  the 
manse ;  in  the  rugged  and  romantic  home 
of  Morven  they  had  their  "bringing  up." 
The  minister's  piety  was  earnest,  health- 
ful, and  genial.  He  delighted  to  make  all 
around  him  happy.  The  boys  had  their 
classics,  and  the  girls  their  needlework, 
but  there  was  no  grudging  of  their  enjoy- 
ments. "In  the  winter  evenings,"  says 
III 


Tllorman  fulacleoD 


his  biographer,  "the  minister  would  tune 
his  violin,  strike  up  a  swinging  reel,  and 
call  on  the  lads  to  lay  aside  their  books 
and  the  girls  their  sewing,  and  all  would 
dance  with  a  will  to  his  hearty  music." 
This  was  followed  by  family  worship, 
which  ended  the  day  with  its  round  of 
duties  and  pleasures. 

One  of  these  sixteen  children  was  the 
father  of  our  subject,  in  many  respects 
his  prototype.  He  had  tact  and  common 
sense,  pathos  and  humor,  and  few  could 
resist  the  tenderness  of  his  appeals  from 
the  pulpit. 

In  the  excellent  memoir  of  Norman 
Macleod  written  by  his  brother,  Rev. 
Donald  Macleod,  and  dedi- 
cated  to  their  mother,  then 
in  her  ninety-first  year,  we  find  that  the 
mother  was  a  powerful  element  in  the 
formation  of  his  character.  She  was  a 
centennial  growth  of  the  most  noble 
country  of  the  thistle. 

The  discipline  of  the  children  was  left 
to  his  mother,  who  was  their  companion 
and  instructor  at  home  and  their  constant 

112 


Mis  fmotbcr 


correspondent  in  later  life.  Dr.  Macleod 
said  : 

"We  were  seldom  formally  lectured  on 
the  subject  of  religion,  but  a  religious  at- 
mosphere was  created  which  we  uncon- 
sciously imbibed.  .  .  My  mother  has  been 
my  best  earthly  friend,  and  God  knows 
the  heartfelt,  profound  veneration  I  have 
for  her  character. 

"  Were  I  asked  what  there  was  in  my 
parents'  teaching  and  training  which  did 
us  all  so  much  good,  I  would  say  it  was 
love  and  truth.  Our  parents  were  both  so 
real  and  human.  There  were  no  cranks, 
twists,  crotchets,  isms  or  systems  of  any 
kind.  They  gave  us  a  blowing-up  when 
needed,  but  passed  by  trifles,  failures,  and 
infirmities,  without  making  a  fuss. 

"Christianity  was  taken  for  granted,  not 
forced  with  scowl  and  frown.  I  never 
heard  my  father  speak  of  Calvinism, 
Arminianism,  Presbyterianism,  or  Episco- 
pacy, or  exaggerated  doctrinal  differences. 
He  might  have  made  me  a  slave  to  any 
ism.  He  left  me  free  to  love  Christ  and 
Christians." 

H  113 


Hlorman  macleoD 


In  Scotland  to  this  day  the  children  are 
brought  up  by  the  parents  ;  the  parents 
are  not  brought  up  by  the  children. 
Parental  authority  is  still  maintained. 
Home  discipline  continues  to  be  the  cor- 
ner-stone of  public  order. 

Norman  Macleod  was  born  at  Campbell- 
town,  which  lies  at  the  head  of  the  lake 
which  runs  into  the  long 
promontory  of  Kmtyre.  As 
the  Highlands  gave  him  his  strong  Celtic 
passion,  so  Campbeiltown  inspired  him 
with  sympathy  for  the  sea  and  sailors. 
His  temperament  was  quick,  and  a  lively 
intellect  he  had  from  the  start. 

He  quickly  caught  the  spirit  of  all  out- 
ward things  in  nature  or  character,  and 
his  power  of  mimicry  and  sense  of  the 
ludicrous  were  developed  very  early. 
Once  when  only  six  years  of  age  he  was 
ill  and  had  leeches  applied  to  him.  He 
named  the  leeches  after  the  leading  char- 
acters of  the  town,  and  scolded  or  praised 
them  according  as  they  did  their  work 
well  or    not,  in   the  voice  of  the  person 

imitated. 

114 


IHls  Earls  Xlte 


At  twelve  years  of  age  he  was  sent  to 
school  in  the  Highlands,  "  to  be  made  a 
true  Highlander  of,"  as  his  father  said, 
and  there  he  felt  the  glory  of  the  hills, 
that  remained  upon  his  spirit  through  life. 
He  retained  the  romance  and  poetic  in- 
spiration of  the  Highland  scenery,  as  who 
does  not  ? 

For  lifting  up  one's  thoughts  and  turn- 
ing up  the  corners  of  one's  mouth  there 
is  nothing  like  mountain  scenery.  These 
carry  one's  mind  away  from  groveling 
parsimony,  and  one's  body  from  the  ague, 
and  take  him  through  nature  up  to  Nature's 
God. 

For  the  strength  of  the  hills  we  bless  thee, 

God,  our  father's  God. 
Thou  hast  made  thy  people  mighty 

By  the  touch  of  the  mountain  sod. 

He  was  a  rollicksome,  frolicsome  boy, 
and  his  parents  feared  he  would  never 
be  sedate  enough  to  become  a  minister. 
His  brother  says:  "They  wrote  him  very 
gravely  on  the  dangerous  tendencies  be- 
trayed by  his  frolicsome  disposition.  .  . 
115 


IRorman  ttlaclcoD 


The  noisy  fun  and  ceaseless  mimicry  in 
which  he  indulged  disturbed  the  very 
quiet  of  the  Sabbath  in  his  father's 
manse." 

On  page  thirty-six  of  his  biography, 
we  find  a  letter  from  his  father  saying  : 
"  You  carry  this  nonsense  much  too  far, 
and  1  beg  of  you,  my  dear  Norman,  to 
check  it.  Cease  your  buffoonery  and 
distortions  of  countenance,  which  are  not 
only  offensive  but  grievous." 

One  of  the  "Queer  Characters,"  such 
as  one  meets  in  Scotland,  and  one  that 
was  a  great  source  of  amusement  to 
young  Norman,  was  "Old  Bell"  as  he 
was  called,  author  of  Bell's  Geography. 
He  was  a  weaver  of  large  intellect  and 
considerable  literary  taste,  and  of  an  em- 
phasis and  originality  not  unworthy  of 
Dr.  Johnson.  He  said  of  a  man  who  was 
perpetually  parading  his  perfect  assurance 
of  salvation,  "  I  never  saw  a  man  so  sure 
of  going  to  heaven  and  so  unwilling  to  go 
to  it."  When  he  was  dying  a  young 
preacher  undertook  to  pray  with  him,  but 
he  made  such  a  fist  at  it  that  old  Bell  ex- 
ii6 


•Glntverslti3  %ite 


claimed:  "  My  man,  no  doubt  you  mean 
well ;  but  you  had  better  go  home  and 
learn  to  pray  for  yourself  before  you  pray 
for  other  people." 

At  the  university  Norman  was  more 
interested  in  general  literature  than  in  the 
classical  studies,  in  which  he 
never  excelled.  Instead  of 
turning  aside  to  make  himself  an  expert  in 
the  dead  languages  he  kept  on  the  way  of 
his  natural  disposition  and  cultivated  his 
liking  for  the  living  languages  of  Shakes- 
peare and  Wordsworth,  who  opened  a 
new  world  to  him.  If  he  had  attempted 
scholarship  or  set  himself  to  make  a  stu- 
dent of  himself,  he  would  have  failed. 

A  fellow-student  writes  :  "I  verily  be- 
lieve that  Wordsworth  did  more  for  Nor- 
man, penetrated  more  deeply  and  vitally 
into  him,  than  any  other  voice  of  inspired 
man.  .  .  Norman  was  not  much  of  a 
classical  scholar.  Homer  and  Virgil  and 
the  rest  were  not  much  to  him.  But  I 
often  thought  that  if  he  had  known  them 
ever   so    well    in   a   scholarly  way,  they 

would    never   have    so   entered    into   his 
117 


•fflorman  tulaclcoJ) 


secret   being   and   become  a  part  of   his 
very  self." 

He  followed  the  fashion  in  going  into 
ecstasies  over  Goethe  and  then — forget- 
ting all  about  him.  Shakespeare,  however, 
he  never  deserted  ;  he  was  too  highly 
endowed  himself  with  the  dramatic  pas- 
sion. He  reveled  in  Falstaff  and  acted 
him  admirably. 

When  he  came  to  study  theology  under 
Dr.  Chalmers  he  felt  at  once  and  ever 

after   the   influence  of  that 
bTZL^    powerful  man.    Here  is  char- 

acter  molding  character.  It 
was  one  of  those  cases  where  the  pupil 
is  roused,  stirred,  plowed  by  the  teacher. 
Excitation  is  often  a  greater  mental  force 
than  information. 

He  went  to  school  at  Weimar,  Germany. 
It  was  almost  violent  transition  from  the 

Edinburgh  Divinity  Hall,  and 

Dr.  Chalmers,  and  Scotch 
Presbyterianism,  to  Dr.  Weissenborn,  and 
the  fashionable  rationalistic  life  of  the 
town  that  Thackeray  so  lovingly  de- 
scribes. 

ii8 


TLite  in  ©ermans 


He  was  passionately  fond  of  music,  sang 
well  to  the  guitar,  danced  as  well  as  a 
Scotchman  can  be  expected  to  dance,  and 
became  like  Thackeray  and  all  the  young 
bloods,  fascinated  with  the  Baroness  Me- 
lanie,  the  court  beauty. 

But  the  Scotch  stamina  did  not  yield  to 
the  corrosive  influence  of  the  German 
atmosphere.  Once  a  Scotchman  always 
a  Scotchman,  once  a  Presbyterian  always 
a  Presbyterian ;  and  when  you  find  a 
simon-pure  born  Scotchman,  and  a  bred- 
in-the-bone  Presbyterian  in  one  and  the 
same  man  or  woman,  you  have  the  most 
indigestible  file  that  the  devil  ever  at- 
tempted to  gnaw. 

There  is  no  better  stuff  for  making  char- 
acter out  of.  It  is  one  of  those  hard  sub- 
stances that  endure  pounding  and  bear  a 
polish  at  the  same  time.  I  have  seen  it  in 
all  its  glory  in  Scotland  and  I  was  fasci- 
nated with  it.  Norman  Macleod  owed  his 
safety  amid  the  perils  of  fashionable  life 
to  the  granite  of  his  character,  which  he 
got  from  the  granite  of  the  Highlands  and 
the  granite  of  his  religion. 
119 


IWorman  fllacleoD 


He  wrote  to  his  mother  the  day  after 
his  twenty-second  birthday  :  "  A  knowl- 
edge of  the  world  either  spoils  a  man,  or 
makes  him  more  perfect.  1  feel  that  it 
has  done  me  good  in  a  thousand  ways.  1 
have  been  made  to  look  upon  man  as  man." 
Here  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  that 
classify  him.  He  belonged  to  that  class 
of  fishers  of  men  who  look  upon  man  as 
fish  to  be  caught  by  the  net  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  He  looked  upon  himself, 
the  fisher,  as  very  like  the  fish,  of  like 
passions  and  infirmities,  not  above  them, 
but  one  of  them,  struggling  up  with  them, 
tumbling  back  with  them.  One  of  the  all 
kinds  that  are  gathered  by  the  net. 

His  brother's  death  was  a  turning-point 
in  the  life  of  Norman  Macleod.  His  affec- 
tion for  his  brother  made  his 
^  ^n  ws" xi?e°'"*  heart  mellow  and  susceptible 
to  religious  impressions.  At 
that  bed  of  death  he  prayed  aloud  in  the 
presence  of  others  for  the  first  time  ;  from 
this  incident  he  dated  the  commencement 
of  earnest  Christian  life.  Of  this  event 
he  writes: 

I20 


21  c:urnfng*point  in  bis  %itc 

"I  think  I  may  defy  time  to  blot  out  all 
that  occurred  at  that  time.  That  warm 
room,  the  large  bed  with  blue  curtains, 
the  tall  thin  boy  with  the  pale  face,  and 
jet-black  sparkling  eyes  and  long  curly 
hair ;  the  anxious  mother,  the  silent  steps. 
Then  the  loss  of  hope.  The  last  scene. 
Oh,  my  brother ;  my  dear  brother ;  if  thou 
seest  me,  thou  knowest  how  I  cherish  thy 
memory.  Yes,  Jamie,  I  will  never  forget 
you.  If  I  live  to  be  an  old  man,  you  will 
be  fresh  and  blooming  in  my  memory." 
Here  you  have  that  ardent  and  profound 
sensibility  which  is  a  constituent  element 
with  joviality  and  good  humor ;  they  go 
together. 

He  was  ordained  and  began  to  preach 
at  the  town  of  London,  to  a  congregation 
made  up  of  the  most  austere  and  the  most 
lax  in  doctrine,  Chartists  and  Tories  and 
Covenanters,  and  all  sorts  politically, 
theologically,  and  socially.  Partisan  feel- 
ing ran  high,  so  high  as  to  create  disturb- 
ance in  the  congregation,  and  the  intruders 
had  to  be  ejected  by  force.  In  his  "  Jour- 
nal "  he  writes  : 

121 


IRorman  rtlacIeoD 


"  I  had  Lord  Jeffrey  in  church.  1  never 
had  a  more  fixed  and  attentive  listener. 
Luckily  I  was  thoroughly  prepared." 

Young  preachers  soon  learn,  however, 
that  they  have  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
bigwigs  of  their  congregation.  They  know 
something  of  such  difficulties  from  their 
own  experience  with  the  public.  Those 
who  are  the  best  qualified  for  criticism 
are  the  least  likely  to  display  it. 

He  read  a  sermon  in  a  district  where 
the  reading  of  a  sermon  was  regarded  as 
a  serious  offense.  After  the  sermon,  one 
old  lady  asked  another  if  she  did  not  think 
that  a  grand  sermon. 

"  Aye,  but  he  read  it." 

"  Read  it !  I  would  not  care  if  he 
whistled  it." 

He  was  a  glorious  preacher  and  plat- 
form speaker.  I  have  heard  and  felt  him, 
as  he  poured  out  his  heart  and  soul  and 
intellect  upon  the  people.  He  gave  me 
his  friendship,  and  I  knew  him  also  as  a 
sympathetic  pastor  and  admirable  organ- 
izer. He  could  keep  several  irons  in  the 
fire  without  allowing  any  of  them  to  burn. 

122 


preparing  bis  Sermons 


Speaking  of   sermon   writing,  he   once 

said,  "I   never  use  a  scrap  of   paper.     I 

generally  tal<e   eight   hours 

to  write  a  sermon.     I  never    *"^ff/!l"^J'** 

Sermons 

begin  to  commit  until  Satur- 
day night.     Four  readings  do  it." 

He  was  a  thoroughly  human  and  imper- 
fect Christian,  not  an  artificial  one.  He 
behaved  like  one.  He  did  not  study  the 
part  and  act  it.  He  did  not  adjust  his 
attitudes,  or  arrange  his  countenance,  or 
assume  a  phraseology,  for  the  purpose  of 
playing  the  character  of  a  religious  man 
or  a  minister.  There  was  no  "Uriah 
Heep  "  humility  about  him,  or  "  Podsnap- 
pian  "  familiarity  with  the  ways  of  the 
Almighty. 

He  says  in  one  of  his  letters  to  a  friend  : 
"Oh,  I  hate  cant!  I  detest  it  from  my 
heart  of  hearts  !  " 

In  another  letter:  "I  saw  a  tomb  in 
the  chapel  of  Holyrood  with  this  inscrip- 
tion, '  Here  lies  an  honest  man.'  1  only 
wish  to  live  in  such  a  way  as  to  entitle 
me  to  have  such  an  epitaph."  And  he 
did  so  live. 

123 


Hlorman  maclco& 


But  he  kept  a  diary  or  religious  log- 
book, which  is  not  a  healthful  thing  to  do. 
You  can  put  your  pen  to  a  better  purpose. 
See  that  it  does  not  make  false  entries  in 
your  account  book,  and  let  your  guardian 
angel  keep  your  log-book. 

One  of  the  many  ecclesiastical  revolu- 
tions that  have  overtaken  Protestantism 
since  the  one   that  created 

"Cbc  disruption    .,  ,     ,   •     , 

it,  was  what  is  known  as  the 
"Disruption"  in  the  Established  Church 
of  Scotland,  in  1843,  when  four  hundred 
and  fifty  ministers  and  elders  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  members  marched  out 
of  the  General  Assembly  and  set  up  for 
themselves  "The  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land." 

Not  to  go  into  the  controversy,  which 
would  take  us  too  far  from  our  main  sub- 
ject, suffice  it  to  say  that  the  dispute  was 
over  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  in  the 
affairs  of  the  church  ;  or,  in  other  words, 
over  the  spiritual  independence  of  the 
church. 

The  two  parties  into  which  the  church 

was  divided    had  divergent   beliefs  as  to 
124 


^be  IXetuption 


the  nature  of  the  spiritual  independence 
which  of  right  belonged  to  the  church,  so 
there  was  a  division  among  them  and  sub- 
divisions. There  were  Evangelicals,  and 
Non-intrusionists,  and  Moderates — no  im- 
moderates  in  name,  although  a  large  num- 
ber in  behavior. 

The  two  main  divisions  were  the  Estab- 
lished Church  and  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland,  the  latter  founding  itself  on  the 
principle  of  total  independence  of  the 
State.  Dr.  Macleod  remained  in  the  old 
church  and,  as  we  might  infer  from  his 
large  and  many-sided  make  up,  looked  out 
in  a  large,  sanguine,  rational  way  upon 
the  whole  conflict. 

Writing  to  a  friend  he  exclaimed,  with 
his  characteristic  drollery:  "Would  we 
had  an  Inquisition.  One  glorious  martyr 
fire  would  finish  the  whole  question.  .  . 
The  divine  authority  being  stamped  upon 
every  leading  ecclesiastic,  everything  in 
the  civilized  world  must  be  overthrown 
which  stands  in  the  way  of  his  notions 
being  realized. 

"  There  are  ecclesiastics  who  look  into 
125 


Hlocman  fllacleod 


a  glass  and  say,  '  I  see  every  time  I  look 
there  one  who  always  agrees  with  me.' 
That  is  their  whole  world.  Of  the  rest 
they  are  profoundly  ignorant. 

"There  are  some  men  who,  if  left 
alone,  are  as  cold  as  pokers,  but  like 
pokers,  if  they  are  once  thrust  into  the 
fire,  they  become  red  hot,  and  add  to 
the  general  blaze.  Such  are  some  min- 
isters when  they  get  into  church  contro- 
versies." 

It  is  curious  to  notice  the  change  in 
views  that  came  over  him  with  age  and 
experience  of  the  world.  He  says,  "  As  to 
spiritual  independence,  in  spite  of  all  the 
courts  can  do,  there  is  not  a  thing  in  God's 
word  which  I  have  not  as  much  freedom 
to  obey  in  the  church  as  out  of  it." 

He  knew  how  to  stay  in  a  church  with 
which  he  could  not  accord  in  every  minute 
phase  of  opinion.  He  was  not  a  schis- 
matic or  an  ism-atic.  "  I  thank  God  I 
was  saved  from  the  fearful  excitement 
into  which  many  of  my  friends  were 
cast." 

While  he  took  sides,  or  rather  remained 
126 


XLbc  Disruption 


on  the  side  of  the  old  church,  without  re- 
garding it  as  one  of  two  sides,  he  was 
blind  neither  to  her  faults  nor  to  the  grand 
virtues  of  the  seceders.  He  was  not  an 
irrational  come-outer,  neither  was  he  an 
intolerant  stay-iner. 

He  says :  "As  for  church  government  I 
look  upon  it  as  a  question  of  clothes — or 
rather  of  spectacles.  What  suits  one  eye 
will  not  suit  another.  What  signifies 
whether  a  man  reads  with  the  spectacles 
of  Episcopacy,  Presbyterianism,  or  Con- 
gregationalism. 

"Is  it  not  a  blessing  that  there  is  for 
one  an  old  cathedral  with  stone  knights 
and  a  bald-headed  prelate,  and  for  another 
a  congregation  that  will  listen  to  long  meta- 
physical sermons,  and  that  for  another 
there  is  an  Independent  Church  where  he 
can  fight  the  parson,  and  that  in  all  they 
will  hear  what  will  make  them  wise  unto 
salvation  ?  " 

In   a   letter   to   a  friend  he  writes,  "I 

value  each  form  of  church  government  in 

proportion  as  it  gains  the  end  of  making 

man  more  meet  for  heaven.  ...  At  the 

127 


THorman  nnacIeo5 


same  time  I  cannot  incur  the  responsibility 
of  weakening  tlie  Establistied  Church,  that 
bulwark  of  Protestantism,  that  break- 
water against  the  waves  of  democracy 
and  revolution,  that  ark  of  a  nation's  right- 
eousness." 

When  he  became  chaplain  to  the  queen 
he  was  not  simply  a  formal  hired  chaplain 
to  the  royal  household,  he 
rte'Sleen''  ^^^  ^  sympathetic  and  faith- 
ful pastor  to  them.  He  said 
to  them  :  "  I  am  here  as  a  pastor,  and  as  I 
wish  you  to  thank  me  when  we  meet 
before  God,  so  would  I  address  you 
now." 

He  wrote  to  his  wife:  "I  spoke  fully 
and  frankly  to  the  prince,  when  we  were 
alone — of  his  difficulties,  temptations,  and 
what  the  nation  expected  of  him.  How  if 
he  did  God's  will,  good  and  able  men 
would  rally  around  him  ;  how  if  he  became 
selfish,  a  selfish  set  of  flatterers  would 
truckle  to  him  and  ruin  him,  while  caring 
only  for  themselves. 

"The  prince  spoke  to  me  about  preach- 
ing only  twenty  minutes.  I  told  him  I  was 
128 


^be  SunDa^  Controversy 


a  Thomas  a  Becket  and  would  resist  the 
interference  of  the  State,  and  that  neither 
he  nor  any  of  the  party  had  anything 
better  to  do  than  hear  me.  So  1  preached 
forty-seven  minutes." 

Thus  you  see  he  was  no  sycophant  in 
the  presence  of  royalty  and  I  presume  the 
queen  liked  him  all  the  better  for  that. 
He  was  the  confidential  friend  and  ad- 
viser of  the  queen  at  the  death  of  Prince 
Albert,  and  was  admirably  qualified  by 
nature  and  religious  manliness  for  the 
place. 

He  writes  :  "  I  am  never  tempted  to  con- 
ceal any  conviction  from  the  queen,  for  I 
feel  she  sympathizes  with  what  is  true 
and  likes  the  speaker  to  utter  the  truth 
exactly  as  he  believes  it." 

Again  we  find  him   suddenly  in  perils 
among  his  own  brethren,  when  he  took 
issue   with    his    Presbytery 
on   the   Sunday  observance     contfovetsi 
question.      The    Presbytery 
sent   a   pastoral    letter   to   its    churches, 
basing  the  observance  of  Sunday  on  the 
laws  and  regulations  of  the  Old  Testament 
I  129 


•ftorman  fllacleo5 


respecting  the  observance  of  the  Jewish 
Sabbath. 

He  took  the  ground  that  the  authority 
of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  was  an  insufficient, 
unscriptural,  and  therefore  perilous  basis, 
on  which  to  rest  the  observance  of  the 
Christian  Sunday.  To  use  his  own 
words:  "It  was  charged  that  I  gave  up 
the  moral  law,  when  1  merely  denied  that 
the  moral  law  and  the  ten  commandments 
were  identical,  and  asserted  that  the 
moral  law  as  such  was  eternal, 

"  That  I  did  away  with  the  Christian 
Sunday  or  Lord's  Day  when  I  denied  that 
it  rested  as  its  divine  ground  on  the  per- 
petual obligation  of  the  fourth  command- 
ment, but  endeavored  to  prove  its  superior 
glory  and  fitness  on  other  grounds. 

"That  I  gave  up  the  Decalogue  as  a 
rule  of  life,  and  therefore  had  no  law  to 
guide  life,  when  I  denied  that  we  required 
to  go  to  Moses  for  a  rule,  having  Jesus 
Christ,  and  that  the  gospel  was  not  a  mere 
rule,  but  a  principle,  even  life  itself 
through  faith  in  Christ." 

Dean  Stanley  says  he  heard  a  Scotch- 
130 


XLbc  Sun&aB  Controversy 


man   from    Glasgow  say  in   the   railway 
carriage  : 

"Dr.  Macleod  is  getting  a  fine  heckling 
about  the  Doxology." 

I  presume  this  man  came  as  near  to  the 
point  at  issue  as  many  a  one  of  those 
who  disputed  over  it. 

A  conference  was  suggested  to  him  and 
he  replied,  "Conference!  And  all  be- 
cause I  do  not  find  the  whole  moral  law 
in  the  ten  commandments,  or  because  I 
think  the  Decalogue  a  covenant  with 
Israel,  and  as  such  not  binding  on  us,  and 
I  base  the  Lord's  Day  on  Christ  and  not 
on  Moses,  and  find  Christ's  teaching  a 
sufficient  rule  of  life,  without  the  Mosaic 
Covenant." 

These  views  were  then  quite  common 
in  all  denominations  and  are  far  more 
common  now.  I  read  them  in  an  editorial 
article  of  a  leading  denominational  organ 
very  recently. 

"Yet,"  says  his  biographer,  "if  Dr. 
Macleod  had  renounced  Christianity  itself, 
he  could  scarcely  have  produced  a  greater 
sensation." 

131 


H^orman  fllacleod 


His  table  was  loaded  with  letters  re- 
monstrating, abusing,  denouncing,  curs- 
ing. Ministers  passed  him  without  rec- 
ognition ;  one  of  them  hissed  him  on  the 
street. 

Writing  of  this  time  he  says  :  "  I  felt  so 
utterly  cut  off  '  from  every  Christian 
brother,  that  had  a  chimney  sweep  given 
me  his  sooty  hand,  and  smiled  on  me  with 
his  black  face,  I  would  have  welcomed  his 
salute  and  blessed  him. 

"Men  apologized  for  having  been  seen 
in  my  company.  An  eminent  minister 
refused  to  preach  in  a  certain  pulpit  be- 
cause I  was  to  preach  in  it  in  the  morning. 
Orators  harangued  against  me  in  the  City 
Hall. 

"This  was  a  terrible  hurricane,  but  1 
had  a  stout  heart,  and,  thank  God,  a  con- 
science kept  in  perfect  peace. 

"  Never  have  I  experienced  so  much 
real,  deep  sorrow,  never  so  tasted  the 
bitter  cup  of  enmity,  suspicion,  injustice 
and  hate  of  ministers  and  members  of 
the  church. 

"Oh,  it  was  awful.  One  would  have 
132 


trbc  SunDas  Controversy 


to  read  the  newspapers  I  have  collected 
to  comprehend  the  fury  of  the  attack. 
Men  from  pulpits  and  press  seemed  to 
gnash  their  teeth  upon  me.  Injustice,  in- 
tolerance, misrepresentation,  sneakiness 
make  me  half-mad  ;  but  the  more  need  of 
silence,  patience,  and  prayer." 

His  Presbytery  admonished  him  and 
there  the  ecclesiastical  part  of  the  row 
came  to  an  end,  much  to  everybody's 
surprise,  for  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  and 
everybody  else  expected  to  hear  the  storm 
howl  in  the  General  Assembly.  Speak- 
ing after  the  manner  of  men,  it  was  the 
merest  chance  whether  the  storm  should 
go  on  or  subside.  Speaking  after  the 
manner  of  a  Divine  Providence  the  "re- 
mainder of  wrath  was  restrained." 

Dr.  Macleod  says  he  "did  not  recant 
or  withdraw  one  word,  but  admitted  to 
the  Presbytery  that  he  had  taught  against 
the  Confession  of  Faith. 

"I  thus  at  the  risk  of  my  ecclesiastical 
life  established  the  principle  that  all  dif- 
ferences from  the  Confession  did  not  in- 
volve deposition. 

133 


Hlorman  filacleoo 


"  In  so  far  as  the  question  of  ministerial 
liberty  was  concerned,  thank  God,  I  have 
gained  the  day,  and  it  is  a  bright  day  for 
Scotland,  which  will  shine  on  unto  the 
perfect  day,  which  to  me  would  be  the 
subjection  of  every  soul  to  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  one  prophet  of  the 
church,  and  to  Moses  and  the  prophets  as 
his  servants,  whose  teaching  is  to  be  in- 
terpreted by  that  of  the  Master's." 

He  told  the  Presbytery  that  it  "  would 
be  the  last  admonition  they  would  address 
to  a  minister  for  preaching  as  he  did,  and 
he  would  show  it  to  his  son  as  an  ecclesi- 
astical fossil. 

"Thank  God,  I  am  free.  Never  more 
shall  I  be  trammeled  by  what  partisan 
Christians  think. 

"One  master,  Christ,  and  his  word, 
shall  alone  guide  me,  and  speak  I  will 
when  duty  calls,  come  what  may." 

He  said  to  me  as  we  talked  this  battle 
over  in  his  study,  "If  you  ever  take  up 
the  matter,  you  will  see  that  justice  is 
done  me." 

Very  loyally  and  with  a  full  heart  will  I 
134 


XLbc  SunDag  Controversy 


now  speak  for  him  and  claim  the  justice 
he  asked,  simply  the  truth  with  respect 
to  his  opinions,  which  are  to-day  ex- 
tensively received  as  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  teachings  of  him  who  alone  has 
authority  to  teach  the  Christian  religion. 

His  triumph  was  crowned  by  his  unani- 
mous election  as  moderator  of  the  General 
Assembly  in  i86g.  Instead  of  being  driven 
from  the  church  he  was  elevated  to  the 
highest  position  she  had  to  confer.  So  the 
Philistines  were  subdued  and  came  no 
more  upon  him  there. 

In  the  midst  of  the  battle  he  addressed 
some  ringing  verses  to  his  friend,  Princi- 
pal Tullock,  who  had  made  a  stirring 
speech  on  his  side. 

Brother,  up  to  the  breach 

For  Christian  freedom  and  truth, 
Let  us  act  as  we  teach, 
With  the  wisdom  of  age  and  the  vigor 
of  youth, 
Heed  not  their  cannon-balls, 
Ask  not  who  stands  or  falls, 
Grasp  the  sword 
Of  the  Lord, 
And  forward. 
135 


•fflorman  fllacleoD 


The  day  after  his  obnoxious  speech  on 
the  Sunday  observance  question,  he  was 

told  this  story : 
TtbettaX'  A  very  rigid  Scotch  clergy- 
man  had  a  very  decent  shoe- 
maker for  an  elder  who  taught  a  favorite 
starling  some  old  Scottish  tunes.  One 
Sunday  morning  the  minister  as  he  was 
passing  heard  the  bird  whistle  "Over  the 
Water  to  Charlie,"  and  was  so  shocked 
that  he  told  the  elder  he  must  wring  the 
bird's  neck  or  resign  his  office.  The  elder 
gave  up  his  office  and  kept  his  starling 
and  prospered. 

The  object  of  the  story,  he  says,  was  to 
show  the  onesidedness  and  consequent 
untruth  of  hard  logical  principle  when  in 
conflict  with  genuine  moral  feeling.  This 
story  gave  great  offense  to  the  intolerant 
portion  of  the  Scotch  Church. 

He  was  fond  of  his  home  and  a  com- 
panion to  his  children.     The  keynote  of 

his   training    and    discipline 
jFonb  of  Ibome  ,      .  .        ,  . 

was   loving    companionship. 

He   got   down   on   the   floor   with    them, 

took  part  in  their  play,  invented  all  sorts 
1^6 


XLbe  IPbiUstlncs  Bgatn 


of  games  for  them,  told  them  stories, 
wrote  songs  for  them,  narrated  his  ad- 
ventures to  them,  kept  up  a  perpetual 
undercurrent  of  moral  and  religious  teach- 
ing, and  impressed  lessons  of  kindness, 
generosity,  bravery,  and  truth. 

His  brother  says  of  him  :  "  The  slightest 
appearance  of  selfishness  or  want  of  truth 
was  severely  dealt  with,  but  when  the  re- 
buke was  given  there  was  an  end  of  it,  and 
he  took  pains  to  make  the  culprit  feel  that 
confidence  was  completely  restored." 

When  he  came  home  jaded  and  wounded 
from  the  battle  he  rested  his  great  nature 
with  an  uproarious  frolic  with  his  children, 
who  were  always  ready  to  impart  of  their 
superabundance  of  life  to  the  wearied 
father  or  mother.  What  a  power,  what  a 
galvanic  battery  a  child  is,  to  be  sure. 

He  became  the  editor  of  the  magazine 
called    "Good   Words,"   and    in    conse- 
quence the  Philistines  were 
upon    him   again,   this  time  '^''"l^""'' 
reinforced  by  the  Pharisees. 
It  was    denounced    by    the    leaders    and 
'organs  of   the  Evangelical    party  in   the 
137 


IRorman  rtlacleoZ) 


English  Church,  as  though  it  had  been 
edited  by  his  satanic  majesty  himself. 
The  word  evangelical  does  not  mean  there 
what  it  means  here.  Here  it  refers  to 
doctrines,  whoever  may  hold  them,  there 
to  one  of  the  three  parties — Ritualistic,  Ra- 
tionalistic, and  Evangelical,  or  High,  Broad, 
and  Low  ;  and  the  bitterest  of  these  is  the 
Low  or  Evangelical — bitterest  toward  the 
other  two  parties,  bitterest  toward  the 
Nonconformists. 

"  Good  Words  "  was  banned  and 
damned  with  all  the  authoritative  ferocity 
with  which  the  pope  banishes  heretical 
books  to  the  Index  Expurgatorius.  The 
Free  Church  Assembly  was  overtured  by 
one  of  the  Presbyteries  to  look  after  this 
magazine.     Here  is  a  specimen  attack  : 

"  It  was  charged  that  a  professor  had 
publicly  declared  that  he  had  read  an  ar- 
ticle on  astronomy  in  '  Good  Words  '  on 
Sunday  evening." 

Dr.  Macleod  replied:  "Why  not  take 
the  magazine  by  the  throat  at  11.55  on 
Saturday  night  and  incarcerate  it  till  12.05 
Monday  morning  ?  " 
138 


Zbc  Ipbilidtinee  Bdatn 


'*  1  was  threatened  that  unless  I  gave 
up  Stanley  and  Kingsley,  I  should  be 
crushed."  Dean  Stanley  and  Charles 
Kingsley  ! 

And  this  passage  was  quoted  against 
the  unholy  alliance,  "  Thou  shalt  not 
plough  with  an  ox  and  an  ass  together." 
But  perhaps  the  kicking  came  of  the  fact 
that  certain  asses  were  not  asked  to  help 
at  the  plowing. 

The  attack  increased  the  sale  of  the 
magazine  and  the  editor's  determination 
to  stand  by  it.  He  said  :  "The  opposi- 
tion gives  frightful  evidence  of  the  low 
state  to  which  pharisaical  religion  has 
come.  I  shall  go  on  as  I  have  begun, 
with  a  firm,  clear  purpose  and  a  peaceful, 
courageous  heart." 

He  said  to  the  publisher :  **  Let  us  do 
what  is  right,  and  dare  the  devil,  whether 
he  comes  as  an  infidel  or  a  Pharisee." 

So  again  the  Lord  delivered  him  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  Philistines,  and  the  rest 
of  his  days  were  days  of  prosperity  and 
peace. 

Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  differ- 
139 


TRorman  {llacleo5 


ence  between  the  atmosphere  of  this 
country  and  that  of  England  than  this 
preposterous  opposition  to  this  admirable 
magazine.  It  would  not  have  happened 
in  this  country.  There  may  be  bigotry 
enough  here,  but  it  has  no  such  party  or- 
ganization or  narrow  partisan  motive.  The 
intolerant  in  all  denominations  are  re- 
strained by  the  tolerant  public  opinion  of 
the  denomination  to  which  they  belong. 

His  sense  of  the  ludicrous  was  of  great 
use  to  him,  as  it  is  to  any  man  who  pos- 
sesses it.     It  broke  the  force 

*'tfumor"*  of  many  an  attack.  It  acted 
as  a  buffer  to  the  buffetings 
he  was  obliged  to  take  from  ignorance  and 
bigotry.  Hence  the  elasticity  with  which 
he  met  one  of  the  most  irrational  and 
acrid  gales  of  opposition  that  ever  beat 
upon  a  brave  and  noble  soul.  No  storms 
could  sour  his  milk  of  human  kindness. 

He  was  easily  touched  by  such  a  story 
as  this  :  "  The  grave-digger  of  Kilwinning 
parish  was  dying,  and  was  questioned  by 
his  minister  as  to  the  cause  of  his  sadness. 
The  old  grave-digger  replied  :  '  Well,  you 
140 


Wis  Sense  of  IHumot 


see  I  was  just  thinking  that  I  had  buried 
fifty  folk  this  year  and  I  was  hoping  I 
might  be  spared  to  make  out  the  hundred 
before  the  next  new  year.'  " 

He  told  me  that  once  when  an  alarm  of 
fire  was  raised  in  a  great  audience  over 
which  he  was  presiding  he  fell  into  a  vio- 
lent fit  of  laughter  ;  and  the  people  were 
quieted. 

He  was  one  of  a  club  of  literary  satir- 
ists, the  chief  merit  of  whose  productions 
was  their  absurdity.  A  toast  having 
been  proposed  to  poetry  in  rather  dispar- 
aging terms,  a  poet  responded  in  these 
words :  **  I  will  tell  the  gentlemen  what 
poetry  is.  Poetry  is  the  language  of  the 
tempest  when  it  roars  through  the  crash- 
ing forest.  Poetry,  sir,  poetry  was  the 
voice  which  the  Almighty  thundered 
through  the  peaks  of  Sinai,  and  I  myself, 
sir,  have  published  five  volumes  of  poetry, 
and  the  last,  in  its  third  edition,  can  be  had 
for  the  price  of  five  shillings  and  six- 
pence." 

His  jolly-heartedness  enabled  him  to 
endure  without  discouragement  and  even 
141 


Hlorman  fnlaclcoO 


to  profit  by  the  somewhat  caustic  criticism 
of  the  great  organs  of  culture. 

He  wrote  :  "  I  am  pretty  well  convinced 
from  the  reviews  of  '  Old  Lieutenant '  that 
I  am  not  able  to  be  of  use  in  that  line. 
The  book  is  killed  and  buried  forever, 
though  self-love  makes  me  think  it  cannot 
be  so  bad  as  they  make  it.  I  shall  get 
what  good  I  can  out  of  the  reviews." 

Being  so   endowed   with  the  sense  of 

humor,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  a 

corresponding  sense  of   the 

"^iHumor"^  pathetic  went  with  it.  He 
could  sound  the  highest  note 
of  hilarious  enjoyment  and  the  lowest  of 
pensive  depression.  These  two  experi- 
ences are  inseparable  and  unavoidable. 
This  is  human  nature.  I  have  quoted 
from  his  sympathetic  experiences  at  the 
time  of  the  death  of  his  brother.  He 
abounded  in  sympathy  and  gentleness 
and  humane  pity. 

Furthermore,  Dr.  Macleod  was  an  illus- 
tration of  the  equally  well-established  fact 
that  such  natures  combine  the  keenest 
relish  for  the  grotesque  with  the  liveliest 
142 


Ipatbos  anJ)  IKumor 


feeling  of  reverence.  Some  of  the  most 
reverent  and  spiritual  men  have  been  men 
of  overflowing  humor  and  fun.  Dr.  Mac- 
leod  was  a  man  of  this  sort.  Conse- 
quently I  am  surprised  that  his  biographer 
should  express  surprise  at  this. 

He  says  :  "  Those  who  knew  him  only 
in  society,  buoyant  and  witty,  overflow- 
ing with  animal  spirits,  the  very  soul  of 
laughter  and  enjoyment,  may  feel  sur- 
prised at  the  almost  morbid  self-condemna- 
tion and  excessive  tenderness  of  conscience 
which  his  journals  display,  still  more  at  the 
tone  of  sadness  which  so  frequently  per- 
vades them.  This  tone  of  sadness  must 
sound  strange  from  one  generally  so  buoy- 
ant." 

This  statement  sounds  strange,  for  if 
there  is  any  fact  respecting  human  nature 
or  mental  philosophy  well  established,  it 
is  that  sadness  is  a  constituent  element  of 
the  buoyant  nature„ 

Notice  what  he  writes  concerning  his 
degree  of  D.  D.  received  from  Glasgow 
University  : 

"  The  University  of  Glasgow  has  this 
143 


Klorman  fllacleod 


day  conferred  upon  me  the  degree  of 
D.  D.  How  sad  it  makes  me  !  I  feel  as 
if  it  had  stamped  me  with  old  age,  and 
that  it  was  a  great  cataract  in  the  stream, 
leading  more  rapidly  to  the  unfathomable 
gulf  where  all  is  still.  .  .  It  needs  all  my 
faith  to  prevent  my  becoming  peevish  and 
miserable  with  myself." 

He  wrote:  "Some  will  tell  you  that 
you  deny  the  atonement  unless  you  be- 
lieve that  Christ  on  the 
*sentSn?r^  cross  endured  the  punish- 
ment which  was  due  to  each 
sinner  of  the  elect  for  whom  he  died, 
which  thank  God,  I  do  not  believe,  as  I 
know  he  died  for  the  whole  world." 

"It  is  not  enough  to  believe  that  sin  is 
a  curse,  and  that  so  long  as  a  sinner  re- 
mains in  this  world,  or  anywhere  else, 
loving  sin,  he  is  in  hell.  You  must  be- 
lieve in  literal  fire  and  brimstone,  or  you 
are  not  evangelical." 

This  reminds  us  of  Finney  : 

"If  Christ  did  not  die  for  all  men,  how 
can  it  be  said  that  God  willeth  all  men  to 
be  saved  ?  Or,  how  can  all  men  be  com- 
144 


IHis  XTbeologfcal  Sentiments 

manded  to  believe  ?  What  are  they  to 
believe  ?  If  it  is  said  God  knows  that 
they  will  not  come,  this  is  charging  God 
with  conduct  man  would  be  ashamed  of. 
If  they  may,  but  will  not  believe,  this  is 
moral  guilt,  not  natural  inability.  .  .  A 
man  must  have  hell  taken  out  of  himself 
before  he  can  be  said  to  be  out  of  hell.  .  . 
Believing  too  much  is  more  philosophical 
than  believing  nothing  at  all." 

With  a  large  experience  of  the  one-man 
form  of  worship  he  preferred  a  more  con- 
genial form. 

He  said:  "Our  better-thinking  clergy 
are  beginning  to  see  the  use  of  a  set  form 
of  worship.  .  .  And  who  can  look  at  the 
critical,  self-sufficient  faces  of  the  one- 
half  of  our  congregations  during  prayers, 
and  the  pufifing  and  blowing  of  the  minis- 
ter, and  not  deplore  the  absence  of  some 
set  prayers  which  would  keep  the  feelings 
of  many  right-thinking  Christians  from 
being  hurt  every  Sunday." 

Again  he  said:  "Neither  money  nor 
schools  nor  tracts  can  be  substituted  for 
living  men.  We  want  Christians,  whether 
K  145 


•fflorman  niacleoo 


they  be  blacksmiths  or  shoemakers  or  law- 
yers, to  remember  their  own  responsibili- 
ties, and  to  be  personal  min- 
isters  for  good. 
This  is  what  he  was,  a  living  man,  a 
personal  minister  for  good,  a  mighty  man 
of  valor,  a  splendid  leader  and  captain  in 
the  camp  of  the  King  of  saints,  the  Lord 
our  Christ. 

He  died  at  the  right  time,  in  the  right 
place,  and  in  the  right  way.  He  died 
suddenly,  which  was  his 
wish,  and  in  the  midst  of  his 
family,  and  at  a  time  when  his  work 
seemed  to  be  done  and  well  done.  He 
had  fought  a  good  fight ;  he  had  kept  the 
faith. 

He  had  won  all  the  battles  that  had 
been  given  him  to  fight ;  his  enemies  were 
silenced.  He  had  accomplished,  or  set  in 
motion  so  that  others  could  carry  on, 
great  and  far-reaching  measures  for  the 
enlightenment  of  the  world,  the  rescue  of 
the  perishing,  and  the  advancement  of  the 
church. 

To  be  sure  he  was  not  very  old,  only 
146 


1Hi5  Deatb 


sixty,  but  old  age  is  always  within  sight 
and  near  at  hand  to  one  of  his  tempera- 
ment at  that  age.  Some  may  hold  their 
own  after  that  for  a  time,  but  such  are 
few.  With  the  most  of  men  of  so  rapid 
and  intense  a  life  the  natural  force  is 
greatly  abated  at  that  age,  and  a  quiet 
death  is  to  be  preferred  to  a  dependent 
life.  Happy  the  man  who  dies  when  his 
work  is  done. 

While  reclining  on  the  sofa  in  great 
feebleness,  he  said  :  "All  is  perfect  peace 
and  perfect  calm." 

"I  have  glimpses  of  heaven  that  no 
pen  or  tongue  or  words  can  describe." 

It  was  Sunday,  and  the  bells  had  just 
ceased  to  ring,  when  his  head  fell  back. 
There  was  a  gentle  sigh,  and  the  great, 
brave  heart  of  Norman  Macleod  ceased  to 
beat  for  this  world  and  began  to  beat  for 
the  other. 

He  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  was  bur- 
ied with  his  fathers  amid  the  glorious  hills 
of  his  native  land. 

Such  an  ending  of  such  a  life  is  no 
place  for  discouragement  and  repining. 
147 


florman  fllaclcoJ) 


It  is  for  reconsecrating  ourselves  to  the 
Master  whom  he  served  so  faithfully  and 
whom  we  profess  to  serve.  It  is  a  place 
for  that  courage  which  he  illustrated  so 
admirably,  and  which  rings  in  the  verses 
he  composed. 

Courage,  brother,  do  not  stumble. 

Though  thy  path  be  dark  as  night 
There  is  a  star  to  guide  the  humble. 

Trust  in  God  and  do  the  right. 
Though  the  road  be  long  and  dreary, 

And  the  end  be  out  of  sight ; 
Foot  it  bravely,  strong  or  weary, 

Trust  in  God,  and  do  the  right. 

Perish  policy  and  cunning, 

Perish  all  that  fears  the  light, 
Whether  losing,  whether  winning. 

Trust  in  God  and  do  the  right. 
Some  will  hate  thee,  some  will  love  thee 

Some  will  flatter,  some  will  slight : 
Cease  from  man,  and  look  above  thee. 

Trust  in  God  and  do  the  right. 


148 


CHARLES  G.  FINNEY 


IV 


CHARLES  G.  FINNEY  was  one  of  the 
most  striking  and  unique  religious 
forces  of  our  times,  the  most 
remarkable    revivalist    this  ^^^^^fJ^J"*"' 
country  has  produced. 

We  shall  study  him  from  a  human  point 
of  view  and  take  for  granted  all  that  can 
be  said  of  him  from  a  divine  point  of  view. 
We  shall  follow  in  the  main  his  autobiog- 
raphy, a  noteworthy  book  and  worth  your 
reading. 

He  was  born  in  Warren,  Conn.,  in  1792, 
and  died  in  1875,  ^t  eighty-three  years  of 
age.  He  enjoyed  the  privi- 
leges of  a  common  school  ^■^Senec7"'' 
until  he  was  fifteen  years  of 
age,  and  became  a  school-teacher  himself. 
Here  is  another  of  the  powerful  men  who 
may  be  said  to  be  the  growth  of  our  com- 
mon school  system. 

He  thought  of  going  to  Yale  College, 
151 


Cbarlcs  (5.  ffinncs 


but  his  preceptor,  who  was  a  graduate  of 
Yale,  dissuaded  him,  saying  it  would  be  a 
loss  of  time,  as  he  could  accomplish  the 
curriculum  in  two  years  instead  of  four, 
as  required  by  the  college.  He  says,  "  I 
acquired  some  knowledge  of  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Hebrew,  but  I  was  never  a  classical 
scholar."  But  he  was  a  scholar  in  the 
English  language.  He  was  an  educated 
man  in  the  best  sense  of  the  phrase,  well 
furnished  for  the  work  for  which  he  was 
adapted.  The  end  of  all  education  is  to 
know  what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it.  He 
knew  how  to  make  the  most  of  himself. 

He  selected  the  law  as  his  profession, 
but  was  soon  converted  and  left  it  for  the 
»  ministry.  This  was  at  twenty-six  years 
of  age. 

His  experience  at  conversion  is  a  revela- 
tion of  the  man  ;  his  temperament,  his 
*  emotional  nature,  his  depth  of  sensibility. 
"  The  rising  of  my  soul  was  so  great  that 
1  rushed  into  the  back  room  of  the  law 
office  to  pray,  when  it  seemed  as  if  I  met 
the  Lord  Jesus  face  to  face.  It  did  not 
occur  to  me  then," — this  is  a  character- 
152 


B  TRevlvallst  wftb  ITntellect 


istic  description, — "  nor  for  some  time 
afterward,  that  this  was  wholly  a  mental 
state.  On  the  contrary,  it  seemed  to  me 
that  I  saw  him  as  I  would  see  any  other 
man.  I  wept  aloud  like  a  child.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  I  bathed  his  feet  with 
my  tears.  I  literally  bellowed  out  the 
unutterable  gushings  of  my  heart."  An 
elder  of  the  church  came  in  and  asked 
him  how  he  felt,  and  when  he  learned, 
the  elder  fell  into  a  spasmodic  fit  of  laugh- 
ter. This  illustrates  the  great  diversity 
and  contrariety  of  forms  in  religious  ex- 
perience ;  what  is  one  man's  meat  is 
another  man's — laughing-stock. 

We  see  that  he  was  a  man  of  great  re- 
ligious sensibility,  of  an  unusual  emotional 
development,  with  a  tendency  to  take  ac- 
count and  make  account  of  his  emotional 
experiences.  In  the  course  of  his  auto- 
biography, we  are  told  of  the  ineffable 
light  that  shone  into  his  soul,  almost  pros- 
trating him  to  the  ground. 

"  The  Lord  drew  so  near  to  me  while  I 
was  engaged  in  prayer,  that  my  flesh  liter- 
ally trembled  on  my  bones.  It  seemed 
153 


Cbatlcs  (5.  jinnee 


more  like  being  on  the  top  of  Sinai,  amidst 
its  thunderings,  than  in  the  presence  of 
the  cross  of  Christ." 

Here  you  have  a  foretaste  of  remark- 
able expression,  language,  utterance,  and 
rhetoric,  the  power  of  figurative  expres- 
sion which  has  distinguished  all  great 
preachers,  and  without  which  there  can 
be  no  effective  preaching. 

He  resolved  to  prepare  for  the  ministry. 
Deacon  B.  came  into  the  office  and  said 
to  him  : 

"Mr.  Finney,  do  you  recollect  that  my 
cause  is  to  be  tried  at  ten  o'clock  this 
morning?     I  suppose  you  are  ready." 

Finney  replied:  "  Deacon,  I  have  a  re- 
tainer from  the  Lord  Jesus  to  plead  his 
cause  and  I  cannot  plead  yours." 

The  deacon  looked  at  him  in  astonish- 
ment and  asked  :  "  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

Finney  replied  that  he  had  enlisted  in 
the  cause  of  Christ,  and  that  he  had  a 
retainer  from  the  Lord  Jesus  to  plead  his 
cause.  Some  lawyers  behave  as  though 
they  had  a  retainer  from  a  very  different 
person. 

154 


B  IRcvivalfBt  witb  intellect 


Some  graduates  of  Princeton  Theologi-  / 
cal   Seminary  tried   to   persuade   him   to  \ 
study  there,  but   he  refused,  saying  he  | 
would  not  put  himself  under  such  influ-  j 
ence  as  they  had  been  under.     They  had 
been  wrongly  educated,  and  did  not  meet 
his   ideal  of   what   a  minister  of    Christ 
should  be. 

He  commenced  his  studies  under  his 
pastor,  and  began  then  and  there  to  apply 
his  splendid  logical  faculty  and  controver- 
sial acuteness  to  the  prevailing  form  of  doc- 
trinal preaching,  which  was  freezing  the 
water  of  everlasting  life,  so  that  however 
free  and  refreshing  it  may  be  as  it  bursts 
from  its  fountain  on  the  New  Testament 
page,  it  becomes  as  it  flows  from  the  lips 
of  the  preacher — an  icicle.  Finney's  pas- 
tor and  teacher  was  one  of  this  school  of 
theologians  and  preachers,  and  Finney  was 
not.  So  the  young  man  set  about  knock- 
ing the  nonsense  out  of  the  old  man's 
head. 

His  teacher  held  that  the  human  con- 
stitution was  morally  depraved,  that  men 
were  utterly  unable  to  comply  with  the 
155 


Cbarles  (5.  JFtnneg 


terms  of  the  gospel,  to  repent  or  to  believe, 
or  to  do  anything  that  God  required  them 
to  do ;  that  while  they  were  free  to  do  all 
evil,  in  the  sense  of  being  able  to  commit 
any  amount  of  sin,  yet  they  were  not  free 
to  perform  any  good  ;  that  God  condemned 
them  for  their  sinful  nature,  and  for  this  as 
well  as  for  their  transgressions  they  de- 
served eternal  death. 

He  told  his  pastor  he  took  it  for  granted 
that  his  hearers  were  theologians,  and  that 
he  assumed  many  things  which  needed  to 
be  proved.  This  did  not  suit  Finney  and 
he  said  so.  It  may  not  suit  some  who  do 
not  say  so. 

You  see  then  the  cast  and  make  of  this 
man's  mind  ;  it  required  proof,  evidence, 
clearness,  candor,  honesty,  in  the  preacher 
as  well  as  the  politician. 

Finney  repudiated  and  combatted  at 
once  these  doctrines,  to  the  great  dismay 
of  his  teacher,  who  "warned  him  that  if 
he  would  persist  in  reasoning  on  these 
subjects  instead  of  receiving  them,  he 
would  land  in  infidelity." 

At  his  examination  by  the  presbytery 
156 


XicenseD 

he  was  asked  if  he  received  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith.     He  says  : 

"I  had  not  examined  it, 
that  is,  the  large  work  containing  the 
catechism  and  confession.  This  had  made 
no  part  of  my  study.  I  replied  that  I  re- 
ceived it  for  substance  of  doctrine,  so  far 
as  1  understood  it.  But  I  spoke  in  a  way 
that  plainly  implied,  I  think,  that  I  did  not 
pretend  to  know  much  about  it.  When  I 
came  to  read  the  Confession  of  Faith  and 
ponder  it,  I  saw  that  although  I  could  re- 
ceive it,  as  I  know  multitudes  do,  as  con- 
taining the  substance  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, yet  there  were  several  points  upon 
which  I  could  not  put  the  same  construc- 
tion that  was  put  on  them  at  Princeton  ; 
and  I  accordingly,  everywhere,  gave  the 
people  to  understand  that  I  did  not  accept 
that  construction  ;  or  if  that  was  the  true 
construction,  then  I  entirely  differed  from 
the  Confession  of  Faith." 

He  was  struck  with  the  fact  that  the 

prayers  he  heard  at  prayer  meetings  were 

not  answered,  and  that  those  who  offered 

them  did  not  regard  them  as  answered  j 

157 


Cbatles  (5. 3finnei2 


they  had  not  the  faith  to  expect  God  to 
give  them  what  they  asked  for.  He  says 
again  : 

"  On  one  occasion,  when  I  was  in  one 
of  the  prayer  meetings,  I  was  asked  if  I 
did  not  desire  that  they  should  pray  for 
me.  I  told  them  no;  because  I  did  not 
see  that  God  answered  their  prayers.  I 
said  :  *  I  suppose  I  need  to  be  prayed  for,  I 
am  conscious  that  I  am  a  sinner  ;  but  I  do 
not  see  that  it  will  do  any  good  for  you  to 
pray  for  me,  for  you  are  continually  ask- 
ing, but  you  do  not  receive.  You  have 
been  praying  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to  de- 
scend upon  yourselves,  and  yet  complain- 
ing of  your  leanness.  You  have  prayed 
enough  since  I  have  attended  these  meet- 
ings to  have  prayed  the  devil  out  of 
Adams,  if  there  is  any  virtue  in  your 
prayers.  But  here  you  are  praying  on, 
and  complaining  still.'  " 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  complaining 
that  tries  to  pass  for  pray- 

*'^^^<"9  3"^     ing.      Some    of    us    act    as 

Complaining 

though  we  were  command- 
ed to  complain  without  ceasing. 
158 


B  Xaw  of  IRbetorfc 


We  find  him  beginning  to  preach,  and 
we  find  that  he  began  as  he  continued  and 
ended,  a  lawyer,  resolved  to  have  a  ver- 
dict on  the  spot  or  know  the  reason  why. 

He  exclaims  :  "  I  talked  to  the  people 
as  I  would  have  talked  to  a  jury.  Of  all 
the  causes  that  were  ever  plead,  the  cause 
of  religion,  I  thought,  had  the  fewest  able 
advocates,  and  that  if  advocates  at  the 
bar  should  pursue  the  same  course  in 
pleading  the  cause  of  their  clients  that 
ministers  do  in  pleading  the  cause  of 
Christ  with  sinners,  they  would  not  gain 
a  single  case," 

His  fellow-ministers  complained  not  only 
of    what    he    preached    but   of    how   he 
preached   it.     Of    them    he 
writes :     "  I    used   to   meet      S^^f* 

txbctoric 

from  ministers  a  great  many 

rebuffs    and   reproofs   in   respect   to    my 

manner  of  preaching."     They   reproved 

him  for  illustrating  his  ideas  by  reference 

to  the  common  affairs  of  men  of  different 

occupations. 

They  would  say:   "Why  do  you  not 
illustrate  from  events  of  ancient  history, 
159 


Cbatles  (5.  iPtnne^ 


and  take  a  more  dignified  way  of  illustra- 
ting your  ideas  ?  " 

To  this  he  replied  :  "  If  my  illustrations 
were  new  and  striking  they  would  occupy 
the  minds  of  the  hearers  instead  of  the 
truth  which  I  wished  to  illustrate." 

He  began  by  being  ornate,  but  became 
direct  and  simple  in  style.  When  he 
came  to  preach  the  gospel  he  says  he  was 
so  anxious  to  be  thoroughly  understood 
that  he  "  studied  on  the  one  hand  to  avoid 
what  was  vulgar,  and  on  the  other  to  ex- 
press my  thoughts  with  the  greatest  sim- 
plicity of  language." 

He  took  a  commission  from  a  ladies' 
missionary  society,  and  this  mighty  man 
of  God  began  his  preaching  at  Evans 
Mills,  New  York  State.  The  people 
thronged  the  place  and  extolled  his  preach- 
ing. But  so  far  from  being  pleased  and 
inflated  by  their  flattery,  he  was  offended 
by  it  and  resented  it.  He  rolled  it  as  a 
sweet  morsel  under  his — feet. 

What  he  wanted  was  a  verdict  for  his 
client.  He  told  them  that  something  was 
wrong  in  him  or  in  them,  that  the  kind 


i6o 


21  Xaw  of  IRbctorlc 


of  interest  they  manifested  in  his  preach- 
ing was  doing  them  no  good,  and  that  he 
could  not  spend  his  time  with  them  unless 
they  were  going  to  receive  the  gospel. 

He  requested  those  who  were  willing 
to  make  their  peace  with  God  to  rise  up, 
and  those  who  were  unwilling  to  sit  still. 
They  looked  at  one  another  and  all  sat 
still,  as  he  had  expected.  They  began 
to  look  angry  and  arose  and  started  for 
the  door.  He  paused,  and  they  paused, 
and  he  said  he  was  sorry  for  them  and 
would  preach  to  them  once  more  the  next 
night. 

They  all  left  the  house,  except  a  deacon, 
who  came  up  to  him  and  said  : 

"  Brother  Finney,  you  have  got  them. 
They  cannot  rest  under  this,  rely  upon  it. 
The  brethren  are  all  discouraged,  but  I 
am  not.  I  believe  you  have  done  the  very 
thing  that  needed  to  be  done,  and  that  we 
shall  see  the  results." 

The  deacon  and  Mr.  Finney  went  into 
the  grove  together  and  spent  the  afternoon 
in  prayer,  while  the  people  were  threaten- 
ing to  give  the  revivalist  a  coat  of  tar  and 
L  i6i 


Cbatles  (5. 3Finnei2 


feathers  and  ride  him  on  a  rail.  The 
evening  came,  and  with  it  a  crowd  far 
greater  than  could  get  into  the  school- 
house.  He  says:  "For  more  than  an 
hour  the  word  of  God  came  through  me 
to  them  in  a  manner  that  I  could  see  was 
carrying  all  before  it.  Many  of  them 
could  not  hold  up  their  heads."  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  physical  or  mental 
effects  of  his  preaching.  A  woman  fell 
down  speechless,  and  was  carried  from 
the  house  in  a  kind  of  trance.  A  man 
who  had  sworn  that  he  would  kill  Finney 
and  had  brought  a  pistol  to  the  meeting 
fell  from  his  seat  and  shrieked  that  he 
was  sinking  to  hell.  He  was  soon  deliv- 
ered and  in  ecstasy.  Men  of  the  strong- 
est nerves  were  so  cut  down  that  they 
had  to  be  carried  home  by  their  friends. 
This  he  should  not  have  allowed.  The 
fact  that  Moody  has  nothing  of  this  proves 
that  there  need  be  nothing  of  it. 

He   could    control  the  physical  excite- 
ment as  well  as  arouse  it.    He  was  mighty 
in  command.     On  one  occasion  when  he 
saw  that  there  was  danger  of  an  uproar, 
162 


B  fman  witb  a  'QQlll  of  bis  ©wn 

he  says  he  told  the  people  to  kneel  down 
and  to  keep  so  quiet  that  they  could  hear 
every  word  of  his  prayer.  They  did  so 
and  the  excitement  subsided.  His  prayer 
was  adroitly  fashioned  for  the  occasion. 

His  will  power  was  tremendous  and  is 
worthy  of  study  from  the  point  of  view 
of  mental  philosophy,  as  well  as  from 
that  of  practical  preaching.  Bear  in  mind 
that  we  are  looking  at  him  from  the  human 
side,  and  take  for  granted  all  that  can  be 
said  and  all  that  he  says  on  the  divine  or 
supernatural  side. 

We  observe  the  exercise  of  this  will 
power  upon  himself,  for  he  commanded 
himself  as  well  as  other  people. 

He  was  one  of  those  men  who  never 
say  die  or  even   cry  sick,  and  who  defy 
the    doctors    to   prove   that 
they  are  going  to  die.     The  ZT:^To:n 
physicians  told  him  that  he 
had  the  consumption — and  he  had.     They 
told  him  that  he  would  never  labor  any 
more  in  revivals,  but  he  labored  a  whole 
lifetime  in  revivals  after  that.     They  told 
him  that  he  could  live  but  a  little  while, 
163 


Cbatles  (3.  Jfinnes 


but  he  lived  about  fifty  years  after  they 
said  so.  He  told  the  doctors  of  bodies  just 
what  he  told  the  doctors  of  souls,  that  they 
were  mistaken  ;  and  they  were. 

He  coughed  blood  when  he  was  licensed, 
and  his  friends  thought  he  could  live  but 
a  short  time.  He  was  charged  not  to 
preach  more  than  once  a  week  and  not 
more  than  half  an  hour  at  a  time  ;  all  of 
which  he  proceeded  not  to  do. 

He  plunged  head-foremost  and  heart- 
foremost  into  a  preaching  campaign  of  six 
months'  duration. 

He  says  :  "  I  preached  out  of  doors.  I 
preached  in  barns.  1  preached  in  school- 
houses.  I  preached  nearly  every  night. 
I  preached  about  two  hours  at  a  time. 
Before  the  six  months  were  completed  my 
health  was  entirely  restored,  my  lungs 
were  sound,  and  a  glorious  revival  spread 
all  over  that  region  of  country." 

If  you  spend  all  your  time  in  nursing 
yourself,  you  will  never  be  anything  but 
a  nurse.  Vanity  is  at  the  bottom  of  our 
coddling  ourselves.  We  pretend  that  we 
are  saving  ourselves  for  the  Lord's  work, 
164 


Wb  ffi)rcacbina  an  Bssault  upon  tbe  TKHdl 

when  we  would  save  ourselves  much 
more  successfully  if  we  would  do  as  Fin- 
ney did,  throw  ourselves  into  that  work. 
But  suppose  you  die  ?  Die  then.  "  He 
that  saveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he 
that  loseth  his  life  for  my  sake,  shall  find 
it."  This  Finney  pluck  and  will  is  the 
stuff  to  make  preachers  out  of,  or  any 
other  man  out  of,  who  has  to  earn  his 
bread  by  as  much  sweat  of  the  brow  as 
is  distilled  out  of  him  by  this  climate. 

It  is  curious  and  instructive  to  note  that 
Finney  being  a  man  of  great  will-power 
himself,  appealed  perpetually 
to  that  power  in  his  hearers,    wis  ff»rcacbing 

,,  ,,    J   ^1  ^  an  Bssault  TUpon 

He  compelled  them  to  come  tbemiii 
in  and  to  give  in.  It  was  a 
conflict  of  wills  in  this  conflict  between 
preacher  and  hearer,  and  there  were  few 
wills  that  could  stand  against  one  so  self- 
reliant  and  aggressive  as  that  of  Charles 
G.  Finney. 

Here  is  his  keynote  idea  :  the  command 
to  obey  implies  the  ability  to  obey  him  ; 
a  man's  "cannot"  is  his  will-not,  and  his 
"will  "  is  his  can. 

165 


Cbarlce  <5.  JFfnnes 


He  says:   "I  assumed  that  moral  de 
pravity  is  and  must  be  a  voluntary  atti- 
tude of  the  mind,  that  it  does  and  must 
consist  in  the  committal  of  the  will  to  the 
gratification  of  the  desires. 

"  One  doctor  of  divinity  told  me  that 
he  felt  a  great  deal  more  like  weeping 
over  sinners  than  blaming  them. 

"  I  replied  that  I  did  not  wonder,  if  he 
believed  that  they  had  a  sinful  nature, 
and  that  sin  was  entailed  upon  them  and 
they  could  not  help  it." 

He  declared  that  it  was  putting  a  stum- 
blingblock  in  the  way  of  the  church  and 
the  world  to  teach,  "A  nature  sinful  in 
itself,  a  total  inability  to  obey  God,  and 
condemnation  to  eternal  death  for  the  sin 
of  Adam.  When  men  asked  God  to  for- 
give them,  they  were  to  commit  them- 
selves unalterably  to  his  will." 

"  Nothing  was  in  the  way  of  their  offer- 
ing acceptable  prayer  but  their  own  obsti- 
nacy." 

"  It  was  plain,"  he  says  of  one  place, 
"that  nothing  could  be  done  unless  the 
pastor's  views  could   be  changed."     So 
i66 


Bn  ©ID  Scbool  minister 


with  the  pastor  in  the  pulpit  behind  him 
and  the  congregation  before  him,  Finney 
opened  his  battery  on  front 
and  rear.     He  says  he  "  en-  »"  ®i2>  scbooi 
deavored    to    show    that    if 
man  was  as  helpless  as  their  views  repre- 
sented him  to  be,  he  was  not  to  blame  for 
his    sins.     If    he   had   lost   in    Adam   all 
power   of   obedience,    so   that   obedience 
had   become   impossible   to   him,    it   was 
mere   nonsense  to  say  that  he  could  be 
blamed  for  what  he  could  not  help. 

"Some  looked  distressed,  others  of- 
fended ;  some  laughed,  some  wept,  and 
the  pastor  moved  himself  from  one  end  of 
the  sofa  to  the  other,  in  the  pulpit  behind 
me,  breathing  and  sighing  audibly.  When 
I  was  through  I  did  not  invite  the  pastor  to 
pray,  for  I  dared  not,  but  prayed  myself 
that  the  Lord  would  set  home  the  word." 

Wary  man  !  He  was  quite  right,  and 
quite  like  a  lawyer  who  does  not  propose 
to  allow  his  opponent  the  last  word  with 
judge  or  jury  if  he  can  help  it. 

As  they  were  passing  out,  a  lady  said 
to   her   pastor:  "If    that  sermon  be  the 
167 


Cbarles  ©.  fftnnes 


truth,  you  have  never  preached  the  gos- 
pel ;  "  and  the  pastor  replied,  "I  am 
sorry  to  say  I  never  have." 

Once  in  England  he  listened  to  a  ser- 
mon in  which  repentance  was  represented 
not  as  a  voluntary,  but  as 

iRepcntance  not  a  an  involuntary  change,  and 
E)ogma  but  a  .    , .  ,  ,    ,        a 

conMict  consistmg  of  a  mere  state  of 
sensibility,  and  the  impeni- 
tent were  told  to  go  home  and  pray  for 
repentance.  Finney  says  he  "found  it 
difficult  to  keep  from  screaming  to  the 
people  to  repent,  and  not  to  think  they 
were  doing  their  duty  in  merely  praying 
for  repentance." 

It  seems  to  me  that  John  the  Baptist 
would  have  felt  the  same  impulse  and  in 
all  probability  would  have  acted  upon  it. 

Here  again  he  was   logical.     He   held 

that  the  religion  of  the  New  Testament  is 

a    total    abstinence    from   anything   and 

anybody  that  simply  amuses  or  pleases, 

and  that  every  word  of  instruction  to  the 

first  twelve    Christians   is   binding   upon 

every  one  of  the  present  twelve  millions, 

more  or  less,  of  Christians. 
i68 


IRepentancc  not  a  Dogma  but  a  Conduct 

Your  only  escape  from  that  logic  is  just 
one  other,  and  the  only  other  logic  :  the 
rules  for  the  government  of  the  individual 
are  left  to  the  inward  light  of  that  indi- 
vidual, whether  it  be  for  croquet,  cards, 
dancing,  or  the  preaching  of  women. 

A  man  of  strong  will,  high  character, 
and  prominent  position,  rebelled  against 
the  favorite  idea  of  Finney,  that  "the 
sinner's   cannot   is   his  will  not."     This 

Mr.  H insisted  that  this  was  false  in 

his  case,  that  he  was  willing  to  be  a 
Christian. 

"I  did  not  spare  him,"  says  Mr.  Fin- 
ney, "  but  from  day  to  day  I  hunted  him 
from  his  refuges,  and  answered  all  his  ob- 
jections and  met  all  his  excuses." 

The  man  was  driven  to  prayer,  and 
commenced  with  the  Lord's  Prayer,  but 
when  he  came  to  "Thy  will  be  done," 
he  was  brought  face  to  face  with  the  will 
of  God,  and  found  that  what  Finney  had 
told  him  was  true  ;  he  was  not  willing 
that  God's  will  should  be  done.  He  gath- 
ered up  all  his  strength  of  will  and  cried 
aloud,  "Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it 
169 


Cbaclcs  (5. 3Ffnnei2 


is  in  heaven,"  and  was  "perfectly  con- 
scious that  his  will  went  with  the  words." 

On  one  occasion  after  the  choir  had 
executed  an  anthem  so  scientifically  that 
not  a  word  was  distinguishable,  Mr.  Fin- 
ney prayed  :  "  Lord,  we  trust  thou  hast 
understood  the  song  that  thy  servants 
have  tried  to  sing.  Thou  knowest  that 
we  could  not  understand  a  word  of  it." 

It  was  in  a  "burnt  district,"  or  a  sec- 
tion where  there  had  been  an  extravagant 
religious    excitement,    with 

H  wumt>rum    ^j^    usual  mischievous  reac- 

prascr  fDlcetlng 

tion. 
"  I  found  that  it  had  left  among  Chris- 
tian people  some  practices  that  were  of- 
fensive, and  calculated  rather  to  excite 
ridicule  than  any  serious  conviction  of  the 
truth  of  religion.  For  example,  in  all 
their  prayer  meetings  I  found  a  custom 
prevailing  like  this :  every  professor  of 
religion  felt  it  a  duty  to  testify  for  Christ. 
They  must  take  up  the  cross  and  say 
something  in  meeting.  One  would  rise 
and  say  in  substance  :  '  I  have  a  duty  to 
perform  which  no  one  can  perform  for 
1 70 


B  jHumDrum  prater  nUceting 

me.  I  arise  to  testify  that  religion  is 
good  ;  though  I  must  confess  that  I  do  not 
enjoy  it  at  present.  I  have  nothing  in  par- 
ticular to  say,  only  to  bear  my  testimony  ; 
and  I  hope  you  will  all  pray  for  me.' 
This  concluded,  that  person  would  sit 
down  and  another  would  rise  and  say, 
*  Religion  is  good  ;  I  do  not  enjoy  it  ;  I 
have  nothing  else  to  say,  but  1  must  do 
my  duty.  1  hope  you  will  all  pray  for 
me.'  Of  course  the  ungodly  would  make 
sport  of  this  ;  it  was  in  fact  ridiculous  and 
repulsive." 

To  counteract  the  effect  of  this  he  sub- 
stituted preaching  services  interspersed 
with  prayers.  He  would  talk  awhile,  and 
call  upon  some  sensible  brother  to  pray 
awhile,  and  then  he  would  resume  his  dis- 
course. 

He  was  abundant  in  explicit  and  per- 
sistent prayer.  He  writes,  at  one  time  : 
"  I  saw  no  means  of  providing  for  my 
family  through  the  winter.  Thanksgiv- 
ing Day  came,  and  found  us  so  poor  that  I 
had  been  obliged  to  sell  my  traveling 
trunk,  which  I  had  used  in  my  evangel- 
171 


Cbatles  (5.  JFinneB 


istic  labors,  to  supply  the  place  of  a  cow 
which  I  had  lost.  I  rose  on  the  morning 
of  Thanksgiving,  and  spread  our  necessi- 
ties before  the  Lord.  I  finally  concluded 
by  saying  that  if  help  did  not  come,  I 
should  assume  that  it  was  best  that  it 
should  not,  and  would  be  entirely  satis- 
fied with  any  course  that  the  Lord  would 
see  it  wise  to  take." 

He  returned  home  after  preaching,  to 
find  a  check  for  two  hundred  dollars  from 
Mr.  Josiah  Chapin,  of  Providence,  who 
continued  to  send  him  six  hundred  a  year 
for  several  years,  and  on  this  he  managed 
to  live. 

Rich  men  should  answer  the  prayers  of 
poor  men,  especially  if  the  poor  man 
should  happen  to  be  a  preacher.  It  is 
strange  that  it  does  not  occur  to  rich 
Christians  that  if  they  are  unable  to 
preach  or  teach  themselves  they  can  pay 
the  salaries  of  those  who  are  trying  to 
preach  in  spite  of  the  poverty  that  breaks 
their  hearts,  ruins  their  health,  and  short- 
ens their  lives.  Rich  Christians  can 
endow  chairs  of  Christian  usefulness. 
172 


Mis  fHlctboD  witb  Sceptics 


He   was   wont    to    say :     **  If   a   right 
course  is  taken  with  skeptics,  they  can 
be  shut  up  to  condemnation 
by  their  own  irresistible  con-  ^'' ^^Jftfc^"" 
victions,  and  they  will  rejoice 
to  find  a  door  of  mercy  opened  to  them." 

Here  is  his  method  with  an  inquiring 
theist.  The  man  said,  in  reply  to  a  ques- 
tion, that  he  believed  in  the  existence  of 
God,  and  that  he  ought  to  worship  and 
obey  him  but  did  not. 

"Well,  then,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Finney, 
"why  should  I  give  you  further  informa- 
tion and  further  light,  if  you  will  not  do 
your  duty  and  obey  the  light  you  already 
have.?  When  you  will  make  up  your  mind 
to  live  up  to  your  convictions,  to  obey  God 
according  to  the  best  light  you  have  ; 
when  you  will  make  up  your  mind  to 
repent  of  your  neglect  thus  far,  and  to 
please  God  just  as  well  as  you  know  how, 
the  rest  of  your  life,  I  will  try  to  show 
you  that  the  Bible  is  from  God.  Until 
then  it  is  of  no  use  to  do  any  such  thing." 

The  man  admitted  that  that  was  fair, 
went  away,  did  as  he  was  directed,  and 
173 


Cbarles  (5.  JFinneg 


became  a  Christian,  a  trustee  of  Oberlin, 
and  an  influential  and  generous  man. 

While  there  was  a  general  uniformity 

in  the  method  of  his  preaching,  he  was  as 

flexible  as  adroit  in  preach- 

^'souis"^'"  ing  for  special  cases.  A  good 
woman  and  devoted  Chris- 
tian got  into  a  despairing  frame  of  mind, 
and  yet  was  expressing  her  concern  for 
an  impenitent  young  man  who  violently  op- 
posed the  revival,    Mr.  Finney  said  to  her : 

"Aunt  Lucy,  when  you  and  B.  die  God 
will  have  to  make  a  partition  in  hell  and 
give  you  a  room  by  yourself." 

"Oh,  Mr.  Finney!" 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mr.  Finney.  "  Here  he 
is  raving  against  God,  and  here  you  are 
almost  insane  to  see  him  in  this  condition. 
Can  two  persons  in  two  such  opposite 
frames  of  mind,  do  you  think,  be  sent  to 
the  same  place  ?  " 

Her  features  relaxed,  and  she  smiled  for 
the  first  time  in  many  days.  Finally  she 
laughed  and  said,  "  We  cannot."  Her 
despair  cleared  up  and  she  was  as  happy 
as  a  young  convert. 

174 


imtse  to  min  Souls 


He  was  good  at  getting  people  out  of 
the  theological  dilemmas  in  which  they 
had  become  involved  by  an  erroneous 
education.  A  thoughtful  man  told  him 
that  he  could  not  receive  the  Bible  because 
it  teaches  that  "  God  has  imputed  Adam's 
sin  to  all  his  posterity,  that  we  inherit  the 
guilt  of  that  sin  by  nature,  and  are  ex- 
posed to  eternal  damnation  for  the  guilt  of 
Adam's  sin." 

Finney  asked  him  for  the  chapter  and 
verse,  and  the  man  quoted  the  catechism, 
and  that  was  all  he  knew  of  the  Bible,  and 
he  thought  that  that  was  all  Finney  knew 
of  the  Bible  ;  but  he  was  mistaken.  Fin- 
ney then  gave  him  what  he  believed  the 
Bible  taught  about  Adam's  sin  and  his 
own — reasoned  with  him  of  these  things 
— and  the  man  was  enlightened,  satisfied, 
and  converted. 

Of  this  incident  he  says,  "I  felt  it  my 
duty  to  expose  all  the  hiding-places  of  sin- 
ners and  to  hunt  them  out  from  under 
those  peculiar  views  of  orthodoxy  in 
which  I  found  them  entrenched." 

He  hunted  them  out  from  under  the 
175 


Cbarlcs  (5.  jfinncs 


delusion  that  man  ought  to  be  willing  to 
be  damned  for  the  glory  of  God.  He 
knocked  that  nonsense  out  of  them. 
Happy  is  the  preacher  who  has  the  art  of 
knocking  the  nonsense  out  of  people  with- 
out knocking  their  heads  off. 

Nothing    demonstrates    so    clearly   the 
reality  of  conversion  as  a  change  of  dis- 
position.     The   vicious   be- 

ifinandai  aon=  QQ^Yue  virtuous,  the  penurious 
vcrstons  '  ^ 

generous,  the  selfish  self- 
sacrificing.  He  compelled  sinners  to  con- 
fess not  the  sins  of  Adam,  but  their  own, 
according  to  the  Scriptures.  Under  his 
preaching  criminals  confessed,  not  simply 
their  abstract  or  theoretical  sinfulness, 
but  their  actual  crimes.  Both  in  England 
and  this  country,  numerous  and  large 
amounts  of  money  were  refunded  by  per- 
sons who  had  stolen  them,  or  obtained 
them  through  meanness  or  deception. 
Business  men  of  good  repute  came  for- 
ward and  acknowledged  their  sins  of  over- 
reaching their  customers,  or  underpaying 
their  clerks,  or  undermining  their  com- 
petitors. 

176 


3ftnanc(al  Conversions 


While  he  was  expounding  the  Golden 
Rule,  a  man  arose  and  asked  if  a  certain 
case  came  under  his  interpretation  of  the 
rule.  Mr.  Finney  said  it  would.  The 
man  went  away  and  made  restitution  of 
thirty  thousand  dollars. 

At  one  of  his  revival  meetings  a  man 
was  observed  forcing  a  companion  into 
the  house  and  to  the  front  seat.  The  co- 
erced hearer  was  found  to  be  utterly  in- 
different, and  the  man  who  compelled  him 
to  come  was  asked  for  an  explanation. 
He  said  he  observed  that  Mr.  Finney's 
preaching  made  men  conscientious  and 
induced  them  to  pay  their  debts.  Several 
of  Finney's  converts  had  paid  him  debts 
that  were  outlawed.  "  This  fellow  owes 
me  several  hundred  dollars,  and  1  thought 
if  he  could  only  be  converted  under  Mr. 
Finney  I  could  get  my  pay." 

He  insisted  upon  religion  and  not  alone 
upon  the  subject  of  religion,  and  was 
himself  driven  by  a  religious  motive  and 
not  simply  by  a  partiality  for  the  sub- 
ject  of   religion.      Crooked    saints   were 

straightened  out,  and  the  croakers  ceased 
M  177 


Cbarlcs  (5.  jFinne^ 


to  croak  and  began  to  find  something 
in  the  sermon  to  enjoy  besides  its  de- 
fects. An  old  lady  used  to  bore  the  wom- 
en's meetings  with  her  long  and  tedious 
whine.  She  had  the  impression  that  it 
was  her  duty  to  speak  at  every  meeting  ; 
and  sometimes  she  would  get  up  and 
complain  of  the  Lord,  that  he  made  it  her 
duty  to  speak,  while  the  fine  ladies  who 
could  speak  so  much  to  edification,  were 
allowed  to  attend  and  "  have  no  cross," 
as  she  expressed  it,  "to  take  up."  A 
new  spirit  came  upon  her  ;  a  great  change 
came  over  her.  She  ceased  to  complain 
and  spoke  to  edification.  Everybody  was 
interested  and  she  became  a  great  favor- 
ite. 

His  interest   in  lawyers,  and  their  in- 
terest in  his  preaching,  illustrate  his  par- 
tiality for   appealing   to  the 
«°°^  T  2s     reason  and  the  understand- 
ing,    rather   than   the   emo- 
tions.    He  says,  "  I  was  particularly  in- 
terested in  lawyers.     I  knew  they  were 
more  controlled    by  argument,  evidence, 

and   logical   statements   than    any   other 
178 


mot  a  ©ospel  Auctioneer 


class."     Many  lawyers  and  judges  were 
among  his  converts. 

Physicians  he  found  more  difficult.  "  I 
think  their  studies  incline  them  to  skep- 
ticism and  a  certain  form  of  mate- 
rialism." 

Lawyer :  A  theory  comes  first  and  is 
indispensable.  Physician :  A  theory 
comes  last,  or  never,  since  it  is  never  in- 
dispensable. So  a  lawyer's  Christianity 
might  be  more  insincere  and  fallacious 
than  a  physician's  agnosticism. 

He  was  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  after 
the  manner  of  the  revivalists  without  de- 
generating  into  an  auction- 
eer  of  the  gospel.     He  did    "^^'JZT     1 
not  fall  into  the  professional, 
"Going — going — gone!"    style    of   deal- 
ing  out  the   good    news  of  eternal   life. 
He   did    not   make   converts   in  order  to 
count  them,  he  made  converts  that  could 
be  counted  upon.     There  are  no  spiritual 
statistics   in  his  book  ;  no  figuring  up  of 
converts  that  the  Lord  had  enabled  him 
to  count. 

He  did  not  undertake  to  convert  souls 
179 


Cbarlcs  (5.  JPlnneis 


by  simply  raising  the  temperature  of  the 
body,  turning  them  into  a  small  room 
and  turning  on  the  gas,  and  the  heat,  and 
the  rhetoric,  and  the  morbid  tears  of  a 
heavy  supper  and  Japanese  tea.  He  used 
no  incubator. 

The   longer   he  lived  the  narrower  he 
became  with   respect  to  the  human  ani- 
mal's  need  of   amusement. 
UbclPictlmof  bt0  ^g  ^     ^  J     „   ^^j3^     f 

own  Xogic  -^ 

thought  called  religion  an 
amusement.  The  highest  amusement  is 
found  in  doing  the  will  of  God.  How 
easy  to  prove  then  that  the  self-denial 
which  he  insists  upon  as  indispensable  to 
Christianity  becomes  self-indulgence. 

Great  logicians  fail  in  logic,  as  all  the 
strong  characters  fail  in  what  they  are 
great  in. 

With  all  his  gift  of  logic  he  would  re- 
sort to  this  trick  of  the  rhetorician.  This 
god  on  the  intellectual  Olympus  would 
come  down  among  the  cheap  preachers 
who  quarrel  with  the  new  and  true  ver- 
sion because  it  substitutes  the  awful  fact 
of  condemnation  for  the  more  rhetorical 
i8o 


Mis  1Rev(val0 


of  damnation.  "  Shalt  be  condemned  !  " 
that  is  logic  which  carries  the  reason. 
"Shalt  be  damned!"  that  is  crying 
"Boo,"  which  startles  the  nerves,  weak 
nerves. 

You  will  find  in  his  autobiography  no 
elaborate  or  detailed  history  of  his  re- 
vivals in  Rochester,  Phila- 
delphia,  Boston,  or  England, 
but  they  are  touched  upon  with  a  sen- 
tentious force  and  comprehensive  skill 
that  cannot  but  fascinate  as  well  as  tan- 
talize. 

His  connection  with  the  college  at 
Oberlin  does  not  occupy  much  of  his 
memoir,  and  must  be  omitted  from  this 
address  ;  but  it  should  be  elaborated  in  a 
full  history  of  Finney's  work.  Whether 
considered  educationally,  politically,  theo- 
logically, or  religiously,  it  is  a  period  of 
marked  importance. 

He  was  ordained  a  Presbyterian  and 
became  a  Congregationalist,  but  he  stood 
apart  and  worked  apart  from  all  denomi- 
nations, owing  to  the  attitude  of  the 
churches  toward  slavery  and  toward  the 


Cbarles  <3. 3Ffnnei2 


education  of  the  colored  people.  He  was 
a  Christian  unattached. 

Among  his  obstacles  were  ill-con- 
structed audience  rooms,  obstacles  which 
that  arch-architect,  the  arch-adversary, 
delights  to  put  into  the  way  of  the  gos- 
pel. So  he  planned  one  to  suit  himself, 
the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  New  York. 

He  says  :  "  The  plan  of  the  interior  of 
that  house  was  my  own.  I  had  observed 
the  defects  of  churches  in  regard  to  sound, 
and  was  sure  that  I  could  give  the  plan  of 
a  church  in  which  I  could  easily  speak  to 
a  much  larger  congregation  than  any 
house  would  hold  that  I  had  ever  seen. 
An  architect  was  consulted,  and  I  gave 
him  my  plan.  But  he  objected  to  it,  that 
it  would  not  appear  well,  and  feared  that 
it  would  injure  his  reputation  to  build  a 
church  with  such  an  interior  as  that.  I 
told  him  that  if  he  would  not  build  it  on 
that  plan,  he  was  not  the  man  to  superin- 
tend its  construction  at  all.  It  was  finally 
built  in  accordance  with  my  ideas  ;  and 
it  was  a  most  commodious  and  comfort- 


able place  to  speak  in.' 
182 


©ppositlon 


They  gave  him  his  "  vinegar  to  drink." 
He  was  opposed  in  such  a  manner  and  in 
such  a  variety  of  forms,  and 
by  such  a  variety  and  diver- 
sity of  people,   with   so  much    virulence 
and  vehemence,  as  to  bring  to  mind,  as  no 
other  page  of  modern  ecclesiastical  history 
does,  the   opposition   which    Christianity 
met   with   in   the   days   of    its   Founder.     - 
Piety  and  impiety,  orthodoxy  and  hetero- 
doxy, Calvinist  and  rationalist,  Pilate  and 
Herod,  joined  hands  against  him.  ? 

He  was  opposed  by  Presbyterians,  old      ■ 
school,   new   school,   and    no  school,   by   ^  i 
Methodists,   Baptists,   Congregationalists,       j 
Universalists,  Unitarians,  Deists,  Theists, 
and  Atheists,  by   Princeton,    and   Ando- 
ver,  and  Harvard,  and  Yale,  by  all  the 
"  schools  "  and  all  the  fools,  by  D.  D.'s 
and  LL.  D.'s.     They  found  fault  with  his 
doctrine,  his  rhetoric,  with  everything  he 
did  and  the  method  by  which  he  did   it. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Patterson,  a  Presbyterian 

minister  of  Philadelphia,  said  to  him  when 

he   came    there :    "  If   the    Presbyterian 

ministers  find  out  your  views,  they  will 

183 


Cbarles  (5.  JFinnes 


hunt  you  out  of  the  city  as  they  would  a 
wolf." 

Finney  replied  very  much  after  the 
manner  of  one  of  Luther's  replies :  "  I 
can  preach  no  other  doctrine.  I  do  not 
believe  that  they  can  get  me  out  of  Phila- 
delphia." 

Some  held  their  garments  away  from 
him.  He  invited  an  old  lady  to  ride  with 
him  as  she  seemed  unable  to  walk.  When 
she  was  seated  she  asked  who  he  was, 
and  where  he  lived,  and  upon  being  told, 
replied:  "  Oberlin  !  Why,  our  minister 
said  he  would  just  as  soon  send  a  son  to 
State  prison  as  to  Oberlin." 

An  eminent  Doctor  of  Divinity  says 
that  he  said  to  Mr.  Finney:  "Finney, 
I  know  your  plan  and  you  know  I  do  ; 
you  mean  to  come  to  Connecticut,  and 
carry  a  streak  of  fire  to  Boston.  But  if 
you  attempt  it,  as  the  Lord  liveth,  I'll 
meet  you  at  the  State  line,  and  call  out 
all  the  artillerymen,  and  fight  every  inch 
of  the  way  to  Boston,  and  then  I'll  fight 
you  there." 

He    was    pursued   and   persecuted   for 


(Opposition 


preaching  what  Mr.  Moody  now  preaches 
on  a  platform  covered  with  the  clergy 
of  all  denominations,  what  the  Methodist 
preachers  have  always  preached,  and 
what  is  heard  now  from  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  thousand  Con- 
gregationalist  and  Baptist  pulpits,  and 
from  almost  as  large  a  proportion  of  Pres- 
byterian pulpits. 

He  was  tried  by  newspaper,  by  Presby- 
tery, by  committee  ;  and  a  great  conven- 
tion sat  upon  him — without  crushing  him. 
The  abjects  gathered  themselves  to- 
gether against  him.  He  was  denounced 
as  a  lunatic,  a  fanatic,  a  madman,  an 
amalgamationist,  a  heretic,  an  Arminian, 
and  an  abolitionist. 

He  was  accused  of  conspiring  to  unite 
Church  and  State.  He  was  assailed  by 
the  daily  paper,  by  the  weekly  paper,  and 
by  the  quarterly  review.  He  was  ar- 
raigned in  book  form  and  pamphlet  form, 
and  in  a  form  of  godliness  without  the 
power  thereof,  in  private  letters  and  pub- 
lic letters  signed  by  distinguished  and  ex- 
tinguished names  and  no  names  at  all. 
185 


Cbarles  (5.  Sinner 


He  was  dogged  in  this  country  and 
went  to  England  only  to  find  that  leading 
men  had  written  and  spoken  against  his 
views  without  having  read  a  line  of  them, 
except  as  they  came  from  his  enemies. 
He  was  followed  and  preceded  by  spies. 
His  meetings  were  caricatured  and  his 
preaching  travestied.  His  methods  were 
misrepresented  and  his  motives  maligned. 
False  witnesses  did  rise  up  and  laid  to  his 
charge  things  that  he  knew  not.  "  They 
rewarded  me  evil  for  good  to  the  spoiling 
of  my  soul." 

In  short  he  was  pursued  by  all  manner 
of  vilification,  calumny,  and  slander,  ex- 
cept that  of  a  moral  nature.  Not  a  breath 
was  ever  breathed  so  far  as  I  can  learn, 
against  his  moral  character,  social  or 
financial.  There  was  no  financial  scan- 
dal connected  with  his  meetings;  he  did 
not  beg  for  money,  or  for  letters  from  con- 
verts. He  was  poor  in  everything  except 
good  works  and — a  good  wife. 

He  was  rich  only  in  faith — but  so  rich 
in  that,  that  he  was  fed  by  rich  saints, 
which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  Elijah, 
i86 


2l6  a  moral  3Force 


and  quenched  his  thirst  by  smiting  the 
rock  of  penurious  religion,  which  is  more 
than  can  be  said  of  Moses,  and  much  more 
than  can  be  said  of  thousands  of  preachers 
who  have  to  turn  away  in  despair  from 
their  hard-hearted,  well-to-do  parishioners, 
and  get  their  food  from  the  ravens  and 
their  water  from  the  rock,  or  not  at  all  ; 
and  all  the  people  say.  Amen. 

Considered     exclusively    as    a    moral 
force,  manifested  in  changing  the  charac- 
ters upon  which  he  brought 
himself  to  bear,  he   is   one     ^^  a  ADorai 
of    the    most    unique    and 
commanding    men    of    modern    times. 

As  a  study  in  character  he  will  reward 
the  student  of  human  nature  abundantly, 
in  any  one  of  the  marked  and  striking 
phases  which  he  represents.  He  will 
yield  wonderful  results  whether  as  a  re- 
ligious force  or  as  a  moral  force  or  as  an 
intellectual  force  ;  whether  as  a  leader  of 
thought,  or  as  a  theologian,  or  as  a  relig- 
ious reformer. 

He  reminds  one  of  the  Apostle  Paul  in 

emotional  intensity,  in  hard-headedness, 
187 


Cbarlcs  ©.  Sinncs 


in  vigor  of  understanding,  in  logical  acu- 
men, in  unremitting  zeal,  in  pressing  for 
immediate  results,  in  forcing  a  verdict  on 
the  spot,  in  will  and  in  assaulting  the 
will,  in  passionate  tenacity  of  purpose, 
and  in  exclusive  self-denying  devotion  to 
Jesus  Christ. 

One  half  a  century  he  spent  in  the  serv- 
ice of  God  and  of  man,  of  heaven  and  of 
earth,  of  religion  and  of  morals,  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  the  public  welfare. 

I  should  say  that  he  was  a  fanatic  in 

the  sense  that  Luther  was,  and  Knox,  and 

Calvin,   and  Arminius,   and 

■DCiaeMea      Savonarola.     He  ran  out  at 

]fanattc  7 

some  points  in  an  excessive 
manner.  He  was  narrow  at  the  top  in 
comparison  with  his  base.  He  was  a  fa- 
natic in  the  sense  that  all  agitators  are 
fanatical,  whether  political  or  religious, 
whether  anti-slavery,  or  anti-intemper- 
ance, anti-religious-torpor,  or  anti-any- 
thing  else.  It  is  impossible  for  such  forces 
to  get  on,  or  do  much  without  doing  too 
much,  to  do  anything  without  overdoing  it. 

But  what  man  of  this  great  century  can 
i88 


anD  IHe  DteD  Blso 


show  a  grander  or  sublimer  record  ?  Who 
can  measure  his  influence  for  righteous- 
ness, its  breadth,  its  depth,  its  duration  ? 

The  many  contrivances,  or  devices,  or 
machinery  shown  at  the  Centennial  Exhi- 
bition were  interesting  and  wonderful,  but 
there  was  no  such  power  of  engineering 
or  forces  on  exhibition  as  this  man  was. 
Their  use  will  end  and  their  influence  per- 
ish ;  his  influence  will  endure  through  all 
time  and  all  eternity.  The  men  of  the 
century  are  imperishable. 

That  one  event  which  happeneth  unto 
all  happened  unto  him.     His  last  day  on 
earth  was  a  quiet  Sunday, 
August   1 6,   1875.     He   was    ^"^^Jf''^ 
within    two    weeks    of    his 
eighty-third    birthday.     He    walked    out 
with  his  wife  at  sunset  and  listened  to  the 
music  in  the  church  nearby.     He  returned 
and   joined    with    his    family    in   singing 
"Jesus  Lover  of  my  Soul."     During  the 
night  he   was   seized   with   pains   at  the 
heart  and  began  to  sink.  About  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning  he  asked  for  some  water. 
But  it  could  not  quench  his  thirst,  and  he 
189 


Cbatlea  (5.  jftnneB 


said,  "  Perhaps  this  is  the  thirst  of 
death."  A  moment  afterward  he  added, 
"  1  am  dying,"  and  he  died. 

The  lesson  he  would  have  us  learn  from 
his  dying  words  is  the  same  that  he  would 
have  us  learn  from  him  as  a  living  epistle 
for  fifty  years :  If  any  man  have  the 
thirst  of  death,  he  can  have  the  "Water 
of  Life,"  if  he  will. 

Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul 

Let  me  to  thy  bosom  fly, 
While  the  raging  billows  roll, 

While  the  tempest  still  is  high. 
Hide  me,  O  my  Saviour,  hide. 

Till  the  storm  of  life  is  past, 
Safe  into  the  haven  guide 

O  receive  my  soul  at  last. 


190 


HUGH  LATIMER 


HUGH  LATIMER  was  born  at  Thur- 
caston,  Leicestershire,  England,  in 
1490,  seven  years  after  Luther. 

His  father  was  a  well-to-do  farmer,  or 
renter,  and  rented  enough  land  to  keep 
half  a  dozen  men  employed. 
He  kept  one  hundred  sheep  *''^*'' ^^^^^'P^"^'"^' 
and  Mrs,  Latimer  milked 
thirty  cows  and  brought  up  seven  chil- 
dren in  godliness  and  the  fear  of  the  Lord. 
His  father  made  enough  to  give  Hugh  a 
university  education,  and  to  give  his  sisters 
five  pounds  and  twenty  nobles  apiece  as 
their  marriage  portion.  His  father  was  a 
soldier  as  well  as  a  farmer,  a  sort  of  citi- 
zen soldier,  always  ready  to  get  down  his 
bow  and  arrows  in  defense  of  king  and 
country. 

In  the  first  picture  we  have  of  the  boy 
Hugh,  he  is  helping  his  father  to  buckle 
on  his  armor,  for  he  is  going  to  help  Henry 
N  193 


IHuQb  Xatlmer 


VII.  put  down  the  Cornish  rebels  at 
Blackheath  Field.  We  have  no  details 
of  his  early  history,  or  for 
uisiEariB  ^^  ^  matter  of  any  of  his 
history.  He  had  a  godly 
bringing  up,  and  was  trained  in  the  hon- 
esty and  integrity  which  he  afterward 
preached. 

At  fourteen  years  of  age  he  entered  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  the  same  year 
that  Luther  entered  the  University  of  Er- 
furt. The  sixteenth  century  brought  in 
with  it  some  men  that  make  it  memorable 
and  illustrious  :  Luther,  Knox,  Calvin, 
Ridley,  Cranmer,  Latimer,  and  Tyndale. 
He  received  his  degree  of  Master  of  Arts 
at  twenty-four  years  of  age. 

He  studied  divinity  and  began  to  preach. 
His  preaching  roused  Cambridge.  It  was 
rousing  preaching,  caustic,  witty,  daring, 
for  he  was  a  born  preacher.  He  preached 
against  wickedness,  but  he  was  a  Roman 
Catholic,  zealous  and  bitter  against  the 
Reformers.  He  says  he  was  as  obstinate 
a  Papist  as  there  was  in  England.  His 
oration  at  his  taking  of  his  Bachelor  of 


Bis  JBnxl^  J^ietovQ 


Divinity  degree  was  an  answer  to  Melanc- 
tlion,  Luther's  right-hand  man. 

One  writer  says  of  him  :  "  He  held 
the  Reformers  in  such  horror  that  he 
thought  they  were  the  supporters  of  Anti- 
Christ,  whose  appearance  was  to  precede 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  con- 
jectured that  the  day  of  judgment  was  at 
hand."  To  his  mind  every  commotion 
was  the  coming  of  the  day  of  judgment. 
He  used  his  wit  and  ridicule  upon  a  fellow- 
student,  Stafford,  who  had  adopted  the 
reform  opinions,  but  a  fellow-preacher, 
Thomas  Bilney,  used  his  powers  of  per- 
suasion on  him  and  his  eyes  were  opened 
by  Bilney.  Great  epochs  in  the  lives  of 
individuals  and  of  nations  are  brought 
about  by  the  influence  of  one  man  over 
another.  One  man  converts  another. 
The  words  of  the  wise  are  as  nails. 
Death  and  life  are  in  the  power  of  the 
tongue.  Latimer  says,  "  He  called  me  to 
knowledge." 

He  joined  the  Reformers  and  his  preach- 
ing was  a  trumpet  call  to  a  life  consistent 
with  the  profession  of  the  Christian  re- 
195 


Wuflb  Xattmcr 


ligion.     It  was  a  direct,  open,  personal  as- 
sault upon  the  vices  of  individuals  in  his 
congregation.     He  withstood 
»e3o(n0tbc    ^    ^^    ^        ^^    ecclesiastics, 

priests,  and  preachers,  who 
were  to  be  blamed  for  neglecting  their 
duties.  He  was  terribly  vehement  in  his 
rebukes  of  the  idle  and  vicious  in  high 
places.  He  denounced  preachers  and 
bishops  for  "stuffing  themselves  like  the 
hogs  of  Epicure's  flock,  taking  no  thought 
though  their  poor  parishioners  miserably 
pine  away  and  die  of  hunger." 

Protestantism  has  always  been  and  con- 
tinues to  be  a  struggle  out  from  under  the 
incubus  of  superstition  and  priestcraft. 

The  effect  of  his  preaching  was  instan- 
taneous and  profound.  One  of  his  hear- 
ers says  his  sermons  left  pricks  and  stings 
in  the  hearts  of  his  hearers  which  moved 
them  to  conform  their  lives  to  his  preach- 
ing. Some  went  to  hear  him  preach, 
"swelling,  blown-full,  and  puffed  up  like 
Esop's  frog  "  with  envy  and  malice 
against  him,  but  when  they  were  asked 

how  they  liked  the  preaching  they  an- 
196 


THe  Joins  tbc  IRetormere 


swered,  "Never  man  spake  like  this 
man." 

"None  but  the  stiff-necked  and  uncir- 
cumcised  in  heart  went  away  from  his 
sermons  without  being  affected  with  high 
detestation  of  sin,  and  moved  to  all  godli- 
ness and  virtue." 

One  of  the  stiff-necked  who  went  away 
from  his  preaching  with  a  high  detestation 
of  Latimer  instead  of  his  own  sin,  was 
the  bishop  of  Ely. 

While  Latimer  was  preaching  the  bishop 
came  into  the  church  with  a  lot  of  pri'ests 
at  his  heels.  Latimer  paused  until  his 
lordship  was  seated. 

Perhaps  the  bishop  and  perhaps  the 
audience  thought  it  was  a  mark  of  defer- 
ence on  the  part  of  the  preacher.  If  so, 
they  were  mistaken.  The  preacher  had 
no  deference  for  men  of  high  station  if 
they  were  men  of  low  morals.  Especially 
did  he  detest  the  sin  of  high  ecclesiastics, 
who  attempted  to  cover  their  rascalities 
with  the  regimentals  of  the  church. 

So  when  the  Bishop  of  Ely  had  taken 
his  seat,  Latimer  dropped  the  subject  he 
197 


Mugb  Xatlmcr 


had  in  hand,  and  took  another — took  the 
bishop  for  a  subject.  He  proceeded  to 
take  the  likeness  of  a  model  bishop,  one 
that  feared  God  and  loved  righteousness. 
His  lordship  of  Ely  knew  so  well  that  it 
was  not  his  likeness  that  he  was  offended 
at  it.  He  knew  that  was  what  a  bishop 
ought  to  be  and  that  he  was  not  what  he 
ought  to  be.  His  lordship  ran  to  his  car- 
dinal after  his  thrashing  like  a  whipped 
schoolboy  to  his  mamma.  The  cardinal 
listened  to  the  bishop's  complaint  that 
Preacher  Latimer  had  hit  him  with  a  ser- 
mon, and  sent  for  the  preacher  and  asked 
him  what  he  had  said  that  gave  his  lord- 
ship of  Ely  so  much  offense. 

The  cardinal,  so  far  from  being  dis- 
pleased was  delighted,  and  said  to  Lati- 
mer :  "  If  the  Bishop  of  Ely  cannot  abide 
such  doctrine  as  you  have  here  repeated 
you  shall  preach  it  to  his  beard,  let  him 
say  what  he  will."  The  bishop  forbade 
him  to  preach  in  his  diocese,  but  the 
cardinal  gave  him  a  license  to  preach  in 
any  church  in  England. 

In  this  cardinal  we  have  come  upon  the 
198 


mbo  was  tbls  CarDtnall 


name  of  Wolsey,  the  renowned  Cardinal 
Wolsey.  You  see  what  an 
era  of  history  we  are  in,  of  ^^g^Mnan^ 
history  and  historical  char- 
acters, both  royal  and  ecclesiastical.  One 
of  the  most  conspicuous  characters  of 
history  and  of  Shakespeare  is  Wolsey, 
Henry  VIII. 's  crafty,  ambitious,  unscrupu- 
lous, and  powerful  minister,  whose  high- 
blown pride  finally  broke  under  him,  and 
who  died  of  a  broken  heart  saying,  "  If 
I  had  served  my  God  as  diligently  as  I 
have  served  my  king,  he  would  not  have 
forsaken  me  in  mine  age."  Wolsey  too 
seemed  to  have  a  liking  for  the  plucky 
preacher.  Something  in  him  won  the 
cardinal,  who  was  ambitious  to  be  pope.  It 
was  this  preaching  of  righteousness  to 
the  beards  of  the  unrighteous  that  made 
Latimer  obnoxious  to  the  world,  the  flesh, 
and  the  church. 

We  have  no  account  of  his  domestic 
life — he  had  none  ;  but  he  was  abundant 
in  domestic  virtues  and  kindly  graces. 
He  was  kind  to  the  poor,  sympathetic  to- 
ward the  unfortunate,  full  of  alms-deeds. 
199 


Mudb  Xatlmer 


His  parish  life  was  his  home  life  and 
his  parishoners  were  his  children.  He 
practised  what  he  preached,  goodness, 
brotherly  love,  honesty,  and  went  about 
doing  good. 

The  Bible  was  published  into  Latin, 
and  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  kept  tight 
hold  of  what  few  copies  there  were. 
Latimer  advocated  its  publication  in  Eng- 
lish, the  language  of  the  people.  A  friar 
answered  him  by  saying  that  if  the  peo- 
ple were  allowed  to  read  the  Bible,  "  the 
farmer  would  stop  plowing  lest  he  should 
peradventure  disobey  the  Scripture,  by 
looking  back  after  he  had  put  his  hand  to 
the  plow,  and  the  baker  would  be  afraid 
to  leaven  his  bread  lest  a  little  leaven 
should  leaven  the  whole  lump." 

Humor  was  one  of  the  elements  of  his 
power  as  a  preacher ;  it  feathered  the 
arrow.  He  had  an  alert  sense  of  the 
ludicrous  and  it  gave  him  elasticity.  In- 
stead of  breaking  he  would  bend  under 
the  storm  that  beat  upon  him. 

Henry  VIII.,  of  unsavory  memory,  was 
king  of   England.     What  recollections  at 


IHenrg  IDHHH.  was  Iftfng  of  EnglanO 

the   mention    of    his    name  !     The    king 
who  married  his  third  wife  the  next  day 
after  beheading  his  second, 
and  took  off  the  head  of  his  ^rrJi'^^^T 

IRing  of  lEnglanb 

fifth  wife  in  the  height  of 
their  honeymoon  !  He  liked  Latimer ; 
the  corrupt  monarch  befriended  the  godly 
preacher.  In  1530  he  made  him  his  chap- 
lain. It  was  a  strange  alliance  and  was 
to  have  a  strange  effect  upon  the  cause 
of  the  Reformation.  Drawn  together  in 
person  they  parted  company  at  once  and 
forever  with  respect  to  the  Reformed 
Faith. 

While  Latimer  was  answering  Melanc- 
thon,  Henry  was  answering  Luther.  But 
Latimer  broke  off  there  and  pronounced 
unequivocally  for  the  Protestant  move- 
ment. Henry  continued  to  stand  between 
the  pope  and  his  opponents,  and  to  play 
fast  and  loose  with  the  Protestants  and 
the  pope  to  the  end.  So  far  as  he  became 
their  friend  he  was  impelled  by  the  worst 
of  motives. 

The  king's   meanness  promoted    Prot- 
estantism.    On  December  i,  1530,  he  re- 
201 


TKugb  Xattmer 


ceived  a  benediction  from  the  pope  as  a 
reward  for  his  opposition  to  Luther.  The 
pope  called  him  "  Defender  of  the  Faith." 

Will  the  chaplaincy  silence  Latimer  ? 
Was  it  given  for  that  purpose  .-*  "Ye  seek 
me,  not  because  ye  saw  the  miracle,  but 
because  ye  did  eat  of  the  loaves  and  were 
filled." 

No,  Latimer  was  not  the  man  to  sell  his 
birthright  of  free  speech  for  an  office. 
He  wrote  his  master  a  letter.  It  had  a 
ring  of  fine  mettle  in  it.  He  told  the  king 
to  be  a  faithful  minister  of  God's  gifts, 
and  not  a  defender  of  his  faith.  "For 
God  will  not  have  his  cause  defended  by 
man  or  man's  power.  .  .  Wherefore  re- 
member that  the  day  is  at  hand  when  you 
shall  give  account  of  the  blood  that  hath 
been  spilt  by  your  sword."  This  was 
bold  talk. 

Latimer  used  his  position  for  shielding 
the  Protestants  from  the  devouring  rage 
of  their  enemies,  but  he  did  not  accom- 
plish much.  Henry  forbade  the  circulation 
or  reading  of  Tyndale's  English  Bible, 
and  Latimer  wrote   the    king  a  letter  of 


CommlssioncD  flilarcb  9, 1530 

remonstrances,  to  which    Henry  paid  no 
attention. 

Never  was  a  game  of  chess  played  with 
living  men  more  complex  or  perplexing. 
On  one  side  of  the  board  was  a  bad  pope, 
and  on  the  other  side  of  the  board  was  a 
worse  king.  Their  moves,  from  the  worst 
of  motives,  affected  the  best  of  causes. 
Reformation  was  promoted  or  retarded  by 
the  wicked  whims  of  powerful  men  thrown 
into  power  by  the  accident  of  birth. 
Righteousness  and  liberty  were  in  the 
keeping  of  crowned  villainy. 

Latimer  became   participant   in  an  in- 
fluential event.     In  1530  he  became  one 
of  the  commission  that  sat 
upon  the  divorce  of   Henry    commissioneji 
VIll.  from  Catharine  of  Ar-         uso^' 
agon.      He    approved    that 
scandalous  act,  and  preached  before  the 
king   on   the   following  Sunday,  and  the 
king,    we   are   told,    greatly   praised   the 
sermon. 

Henry   was    excommunicated    by    the 
pope  for  his  divorce  from  Catharine  and 
became  head  of  the  Church  of  England. 
203 


THuQb  Xatlmer 


Wolsey's  intrigue  with  the  pope  in  favor 
of  Catharine  lost  him  his  place,  and  the 
Reformers  lost  a  friend  at  court. 

Then  Sir  Thomas  More,  another  remark- 
able historical  character,  became  Henry's 
chief  minister,  one  of  the  most  attractive 
and  detestable,  amiable  and  cruel,  pious 
and  bloodthirsty,  saints  that  ever  adorned 
the  private  life  or  disgraced  the  religious 
life  of  his  times.  He  was  one  of  those 
men  of  whom  it  may  be  said  that  but  for 
their  religion  they  would  be  the  most 
estimable  of  men. 

He  killed  Bainham  for  being  a  Protest- 
ant and  the  Protestants  killed  him  for 
being  a  Catholic.  But  for  the  king  he 
would  probably  have  burned  Latimer. 
Two  years  and  a  half,  and  his  hour  on 
the  stage  came  to  a  bloody  end. 

The  king  appointed  Latimer  to  a  living 
at  West  Kingston,  in  Wiltshire,  in  1531,  and 
he  retired  from  the  court  to  the  compara- 
tive seclusion  of  a  rural  parish,  but  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  quiet  or  seclusion  or 
silence  for  the  bold  and  zealous  Reformer. 
He  preached  at  every  opportunity  and 
204 


Commissioned  fUlarcb  9, 1530 

sought  out  opportunities  to  preach.  He 
was  "as  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves." 
The  wolves  were  the  bishops  who  thirsted 
for  his  blood  because  they  winced  under 
his  preaching.  They  were  reinforced  by 
the  country  clergy,  and  Latimer  was 
again  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 

Among  other  counts  in  the  indictment 
against  him  was  that  of  preaching  that 
there  was  no  purgatory  and  no  material 
fire  in  hell.  He  maintained  that  the  fire 
could  only  be  a  figure,  since  you  could  not 
touch  the  soul  with  material  fire. 

This  was  especially  displeasing  to  the 
persecutors,  who  would  probably  never 
have  thought  of  fire  as  a  punishment  for 
heresy  if  they  had  not  interpreted  the 
Bible  to  mean  that  the  Almighty  had  se- 
lected that  kind  of  punishment  for  here- 
tics. Those  who  chained  the  body  of 
the  heretic  to  the  tree,  and  set  fire  to  it, 
believed  that  the  Deity  was  standing 
ready  to  cast  his  soul  into  equally  literal 
flames  and  chains. 

In  1532  he  was  summoned  by  the  arch- 
bishop and  bishops  to  answer  to  the  charge 
205 


tHuflb  Xatimcr 


of  heresy,  but  Latimer  was  as  wary  be- 
fore his  accusers  as  he  was  bold  in  the 
pulpit.  He  answered  discreetly.  He  ob- 
served that  a  curtain  covered  the  fire- 
place, and  that  he  was  examined  near  this 
curtain.  One  of  his  examiners  exclaimed  : 
"  I  pray  you,  speak  out,  Master  Latimer ; 
I  am  very  thick  of  hearing,  and  there  be 
many  that  sit  far  off."  This  confirmed 
Latimer's  suspicions,  and  he  heard  a  pen 
taking  down  his  answers  behind  the  cur- 
tain. 

He  was  required  to  subscribe  to  certain 
articles  on  pain  of  excommunication  and 

death,  and  he  did  subscribe, 
We  HOleafiens 

whether   to   the  full  extent 

required   is   not   known.     The    narrative 

here,  as  in  several  other  parts,  is  obscure. 

That  he  made  some  kind  of   submission 

there   is  no   doubt.     He    kneeled  before 

the   convocation   and   confessed   that  he 

had  "  misordered  himself  so  far,  in  that 

he    had   so    presumptuously   and   boldly 

preached,    reproving    certain    things    by 

which  the  people   that  were  infirm  hath 

taken  occasion  of  ill." 

206 


We  iKHeaRcna 


In  recalling  the  weakening  of  such  men 
under  such  circumstances,  remember  their 
education,  their  times,  the  natural  recoil 
from  a  death  so  horrible.  Furthermore, 
Latimer  was  a  feeble  man  physically  ;  he 
was  never  free  from  bodily  infirmities. 

And  that  is  not  all.  I  cannot  but  infer 
from  the  tone  and  style  of  Latimer's 
preaching  that  he  was  something  of  what 
is  now  known  as  a  Broad  Churchman.  It 
was  difficult  for  him  to  put  much  more 
emphasis  upon  opposition  to  the  dogmas 
than  he  did  upon  the  dogmas  themselves. 
He  saw  the  fallacy  and  absurdity  of  tran- 
substantiation,  and  baptismal  regeneration, 
and  the  like,  but  he  did  not  feel  the  ne- 
cessity of  sacrificing  everything  in  doing 
away  with  them.  He  said  :  "  Cannot  we 
preach  the  gospel,  and  save  men  in  spite 
of  them  ?  Shall  we  pull  down  the  whole 
fabric  to  get  rid  of  a  few  rotten  timbers  ? 
At  any  rate  there  is  no  hurry.  It  is  too 
soon  to  bring  on  a  crisis." 

An  indication  of  this  spirit  is  seen  in 
the  opinion  he  expressed  with  respect  to 
a  religious  manual  which  he  had,  when  a 
207 


IHugb  Xatlmer 


bishop,  united  with  the  other  bishops  in 
publishing:  "It  is  a  troublous  thing  to 
agree  upon  a  doctrine  in  things  of  such 
controversy,  every  man,  I  trust,  meaning 
well,  and  yet  not  all  meaning  one  way." 
He  hopes  the  king  will  tolerate  the  manual 
for  a  time,  however  uncertain  it  may 
sound.  "  He  can  separate  for  himself. 
So  giving  place  for  a  season  to  the  frailty 
and  gross  capacity  of  his  subjects." 
What  he  advised  the  king  to  do  he  did 
himself.  He  bore  with  the  "  gross  ca- 
pacity "  of  his  associates  and  opponents. 

Being  further  molested  he  appealed  to 
the  king,  and  the  king  delivered  him  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  Philistines.  He  re- 
turned to  his  parish  and  his  preaching. 

The  tide  turned  again  in  favor  of  the 
Reformers.  The  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury and  primate,  Warham,  died  and 
Cranmer  succeeded  him  and  made  Lati- 
mer a  bishop. 

Thus   Cranmer  became   archbishop  of 

Canterbury  and   primate  of  the   English 

Church  in  1533.     Here  is  another  historic 

character,  another  name  of  lustre  and  re- 

208 


Cranmer 

nown  in  the  history  of  the  Reformation, 
another  martyr,  one  of  the  three  martyrs 
whose  martyrdom  gave  the 
Protestants   their    greatest 
impulse,   Latimer,  Ridley,  and  Cranmer. 

Cranmer  acquiesced  in  the  burning  of 
Frith  for  denying  that  the  bread  of  the 
supper  is  Christ's  body.  You  will  find 
the  very  words  for  which  Frith  was 
burned  at  the  close  of  the  Communion 
service  in  the  Church  of  England  Book 
of  Common  Prayer :  "  The  natural  body 
and  blood  of  our  Saviour  Christ  are  in 
heaven  and  not  here,  it  being  against  the 
truth  of  Christ's  natural  body  to  be  at 
one  time  in  more  places  than  one." 

Cranmer  tried  to  persuade  Frith  out  of 
this  heresy,  and  was  himself  persuaded 
of  its  truth  by  Frith's  writings  and  was 
burned  for  adopting  them.  Like  Forest 
and  Bilney  he  recanted,  but  afterward  re- 
canted his  recantation.  He  held  his  right 
hand  in  the  fire  at  the  stake,  until  it  was 
consumed,  as  a  punishment  for  writing 
the  recantation. 

This  reminds  us  of  the  success  of  per- 
o  209 


IKugb  Xattmer 


secution.  If  men  of  so  much  nerve  and 
faith,  and  so  much  responsibility  for  their 
cause,  almost  abandon  it  in  this  awful 
moment,  what  must  be  the  recoil  and 
horror  of  men  of  weaker  spirit  ?  If  the 
leaders  shrink,  what  must  be  the  shrink- 
ing of  the  masses  ?  If  martyrdom  is  an 
example  to  inspirit  the  occasional  spirit  of 
high  degree,  it  is  a  disastrous  discourage- 
ment to  the  common  run  of  ordinary 
minds. 

Here  again  we  have  the  blood  and 
mettle  and  stuff  and  stamina  that  holds 
on  and  never  lets  go,  and 
wms  m  the  end,  whether  it 
be  the  reformation  of  a  church,  or  the 
pushing  of  an  idea,  or  the  colonization  of 
a  continent.  It  is  the  Teutonic,  Viking, 
Northern,  Saxon,  Anglo-Saxon,  pertinacity 
which  will  die  game  if  it  must  die. 

It   carried    Latimer    to    a   high   place. 
Through  Cranmer's  influence  he  was  re- 
appointed    royal     chaplain 
and   was    made    Bishop    of 
Worcester.     Instead  of  the  stake  he  had 
a    seat    on    the    episcopal     bench.      He 


Zbe  ^IDe  ITurns 


preached  as  boldly  in  the  bishop's  lawn 
as  in  the  priest's  gown. 

His  sermon  at  his  consecration  was 
another  shell  in  the  camp  of  his  enemies. 
They  denounced  it  as  seditious  and  com- 
plained of  it  to  the  king,  who  summoned 
him  to  answer  for  it.  He  said :  "  If  your 
grace  will  allow  me  for  a  preacher,  give 
me  leave  to  discharge  my  own  conscience 
and  to  frame  my  doctrine  according  to  my 
audience.  .  .  I  would  be  a  dolt  to  preach 
at  the  borders  of  your  realm  as  I  preach 
before  your  grace." 

This  was  one  of  the  daring  preacher's 
adroit  answers.  Henry  was  satisfied. 
His  liking  for  Latimer  saved  him,  and  the 
wolves  must  leave  their  prey  again.  The 
stake  was  cheated  of  its  victim  once  more. 
The  time  had  not  yet  come. 

In  one  of  his  sermons  before  the  royal 
family   and    nobles   he   declaims   against 
covetousness,  and  this  is  a 
specimen  of   his  preaching:  ^'^^'^l^T 

"Take  heed  and  beware 
of  covetousness.     Take  heed  and  beware 
of  covetousness.     Great  complaints  there 


Mugb  Xattmer 


are  of  it  and  much  crying  out  and  preacii- 
ing,  but  little  amendment.  Covetousness 
is  the  root  of  all  evil.  Then  have  at  the 
root.  Out  with  your  swords,  ye  preachers, 
and  have  at  the  root.  Stand  not  ticking 
and  toying  at  the  branches,  for  new 
branches  will  spring  out  again.  .  .  Strike 
at  the  root  and  fear  not  these  men  of 
power,  these  oppressors  of  the  needy. 
Fear  them  not  but  strike  at  the  root." 

He  denounced  the  whole  hierarchy  of 
ecclesiastics,  bishops,  abbots,  priests — as 
strong  thieves  and  jolly  fellows  with 
golden  chains  and  velvet  gowns. 

He  was  appointed  to  preach  the  open- 
ing sermon  before  the  Convocation  in 
1536.  It  was  the  highest 
assembly  known  to  the 
church  outside  of  Rome,  and  this  was  the 
highest  place  he  was  to  fill  until  he  should 
stand  at  the  stake.  St.  Paul's  Cathedral 
was  crowded  with  ecclesiastics.  The 
powerful  Lord  Cromwell,  vicar  general, 
presided. 

Cranmer,  who  was  to  follow  Latimer 
to  the  stake,  sat  in  the  primate's  chair, 
212 


IKonots  ^bfcften 


and  others  of  the  coming  martyrs  were 
present,  and  those  who  were  to  burn 
them.  The  great  majority  of  that  vast 
assembly  thirsted  for  Latimer's  blood 
while  they  listened  to  his  sermon. 

It  was  the  hour  of  their  discomfiture 
and  his  triumph.  Now  was  his  head  high 
and  lifted  up  above  his  enemies  round 
about  him,  abbots,  bishops,  priests  ;  they 
hated  him  with  what  Wesley  calls  "  pious 
venom."  He  rose  in  the  pulpit  and  ex- 
claimed :  "  What  fruit  has  come  of  your 
long  and  great  assembly  ?  What  one 
thing  that  the  people  have  been  the  better 
of  a  hair  ?  These  are  our  holy  men  that 
say  they  are  dead  to  the  world,  and  none 
are  more  lively  to  the  world.  God  com- 
mands you  to  feed  his  sheep,  and  you 
feed  yourselves  from  day  to  day  wallow- 
ing in  delight  and  idleness. 

"Ye  have  not  deceived  God,  but  your- 
selves ;  his  gifts  and  benefits  shall  be  to 
your  greater  damnation.  Because  ye 
have  despised  the  clemency  of  the  Master 
ye  have  deserved  the  severity  of  the 
Judge. 

213 


IHuQb  Xattmer 


"  Let  us  see  an  account  of  your  steward- 
ship. God  will  visit  you.  He  will  come. 
He  will  not  tarry  long.  In  the  day  in 
which  we  do  not  look  for  him,  he  will 
come  and  cut  you  in  pieces  and  give  you 
your  portion  with  the  hypocrites,  where 
there  shall  be  wailing  and  gnashing  of 
teeth." 

At  this  convocation  fourteen  articles  of 
faith  were  agreed  upon,  which  made  the 
first  creed  of  the  English  Church.  They 
were  a  compromise  ;  some  of  them  were 
designed  to  conciliate  the  Reformers,  and 
some  of  them  to  conciliate  their  perse- 
cutors. They  pleased  neither  party,  and 
displeased  both  parties.  Transubstantia- 
tion  was  retained  to  gratify  Henry,  who 
never  abandoned  it — he  was  saved  if  that 
could  save  him. 

On  the  whole   there  was  progress  for 

the    Protestants.     Although    the    pope's 

authority  was  not  entirely  done  away,  it 

was    hopelessly   broken,    and   Tyndale's 

translation   of   the  Bible  was   chained  in 

every  church,  and  any  one  might  step  in 

and  read  it. 

214 


1538 

In  1538  came  a  cloud  over  the  Reform- 
er's good  name  and  fame  ;  we  are  as- 
tounded to  find  our  great 
martyr  jommg  m  the  mar- 
tyrdom of  another.  Cranmer,  who  was 
himself  to  burn,  concurred  in  the  burning 
of  Friar  Forrest  for  refusing  to  acknowl- 
edge the  supremacy  of  Henry  over  the 
pope.  Cromwell  appointed  Latimer  to 
preach  upon  the  occasion. 

We  are  astounded.  We  start  back.  Is 
this  history  .?  Yes,  this  is  history,  this  is 
the  history  of  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ, 
this  is  the  history  of  the  religion  of  peace 
to  men. 

Forrest's  murder  was  more  cruel  and 
atrocious  than  that  of  any  of  them.  He 
was  put  into  an  iron  cage  and  the  cage 
was  surrounded  by  the  fagots.  The 
fagots  were  set  on  fire.  While  Forrest 
was  slowly  roasting  alive  in  his  iron  cage, 
by  command  of  the  foremost  Reformers 
and  Protestants  of  that  day,  one  of  them, 
Hugh  Latimer,  preached. 

It  is  a  miserable  spectacle  this.  We 
account  for  it  by  the  hardening  influence 

215 


Wugb  Xatlmer 


of  a  corrupt  religion.  None  of  the  Re- 
formers, inclusive  of  our  own  immediate 
ancestors,  the  Puritans,  ever  outgrew  the 
vindictive  cruelty  of  their  religious  edu- 
cation. 

Henry  and  his  tools  passed  what  was 

known  as  "  the  bloody  act  of  six  articles, 

and     the     whip     with     six 

""Scrn'     Stings."     By   this    act    the 

denial  of  transubstantiation 

was  made  punishable  with  death,  and  the 

denial  of  other  articles  incurred  fine  and 

imprisonment.     Then  came  a  reaction. 

The  Reformers  rebelled.  Latimer  re- 
signed his  bishopric.  He  was  tried  for 
heresy  and  imprisoned  in  the  Tower 
during  the  last  years  of  Henry's  reign, 
1546. 

Henry  died  and  upon  the  accession  of 

Edward  VI.  Latimer  was   set   at   liberty 

and  his  bishopric  was  offered 

**^'^^  M.  18    j^i^    j^^^  j^g  declined  it.     He 

was   probably   wearied    out 

with   court   life.     He   could   do   little    or 

nothing  to  correct  its  morals  or  utilize  it 

for  the  benefit  of  the  new  opinions.     He 
216 


BDwavO  lt)ir.  is  IRtng 


has  a  curious  way  of  disappearing  from 
the  history  of  his  times. 

Latimer  was  an  agitator,  and  was  better 
at  creating  public  opinion  than  utilizing  it. 
He  went  everywhere  preaching  the  word 
as  he  understood  it,  but  now  he  would  not 
preach  long.  Soon  his  voice  was  to  be 
stifled  in  the  flames. 

The  young  king  reigned  only  six  years, 
then  died,  and  with  him  died  the  hopes  of 
the  Reformers. 

The  curtain  rose  then  upon  one  of  the 
most  pathetic  tragedies  of  English  history, 
the  ten  days'  reign  and  the  execution  of 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  although  as  innocent  as 
any  person  now  living. 

Edward    was    succeeded    by   Mary   L 
The  blood  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men 
and  fifty  women  is  on  her 
skirts.  One  hundred  of  them    jBioobs  noarp 
were  starved  and  otherwise 
tortured.    She  did  what  she  could  to  arrest 
the  Reformation,  and  restore  England  to 
the  authority  of  the  pope. 

So  the  tide  turned  again,  and  Latimer 
was  again  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  along 
217 


IKugb  Xattmer 


with  Cranmer  and  Ridley.  Here  lie 
endured  hunger,  cold,  solitude,  and  every 
privation.  In  1554  he  was  summoned  to 
answer  for  his  heresy  at  Oxford.  The 
commissioners  appointed  to  examine  him 
with  Cranmer  and  Ridley,  simply  came 
together  to  enjoy  their  triumph.  They 
chuckled,  for  it  was  their  turn  now.  The 
bishop  who  arraigned  them  from  the  pul- 
pit of  St.  Paul's,  was  now  arraigned  by 
them.  The  sheep  were  in  the  clutches  of 
the  wolves  at  last. 

No  wisdom  of  serpents  or  harmlessness 
of  doves  could  save  them.  Latimer's 
answers  were  received  with  jeers  and 
laughter.  He  was  feeble  as  well  as  old, 
and  tortured  with  disease  as  well  as  bowed 
down  with  age.  They  taunted  the  old 
man. 

Latimer  was   so   faint  that  he   begged 

that  they  would  do  their  worst  quickly. 

"  What  thou  doest  do  quickly."     He  was 

thrown  again  into  the  common  jail  for  a 

year,  when   he   was   again   and   for   the 

last  time  brought  before  the  inquisition  of 

Bloody  Mary. 

218 


:Bloo&i2  tsinvs 


He  was  feebler  than  before,  for  his  im- 
prisonment had  told  upon  him,  but  al- 
though his  body  tottered  his  mind  was 
firm. 

The  inquisitors  twitted  him  with  want 
of  learning.  He  replied  :  "You  look  for 
learning  in  one  who  has  bare  walls  for  his 
library,  without  book,  pen,  or  ink."  He 
congratulated  them  on  their  goodly  victory 
over  such  a  man. 

They  could  taunt  him  and  defy  him, 
but  they  could  not  break  his  spirit  or 
destroy  his  faith.  He  was  urged  to  re- 
cant, to  declare  for  the  pope  and  save  his 
life.  He  refused  with  a  spirited  and  noble 
scorn.  He  knew  that  if  he  should  recant 
they  would  murder  him  all  the  same.  It 
was  the  revenge  of  those  who  had  been 
put  in  the  wrong.  They  were  condemned, 
Latimer  and  Ridley,  and  on  the  i6th  of 
October,  1555,  they  were  conducted  to  the 
stake.  The  monument  to  their  memory 
is  seen  on  the  spot  where  they  perished, 
at  Oxford,  England. 

Latimer  was  bowed  under  his  burthen 
of  years,  trials,  and  privations  ;  the  dis- 
219 


THugb  Xatimet 


orders  that  had  always  tortured  him  had 
been  aggravated  by  age.  The  sun  shone 
unobscured  ;  it  was  a  pleasant  autumn 
day. 

They  came  to  the  stake,  and  Ridley 
asked  permission  to  say  a  word  or  two, 
whereupon  the  vice-chancellor  ran  and 
laid  his  hand  over  the  martyr's  mouth, 
and  told  him  if  he  would  recant  he  should 
have  liberty  not  only  to  speak  but  to  live. 
'*  All  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his 
life,"  unless  he  has  the  sustaining  power 
of  the  martyr's  spirit.  Ridley  replied : 
"So  long  as  the  breath  is  in  my  body  I 
will  never  deny  my  Christ,  and  his  known 
truth.  God's  will  be  done  in  me.  I  com- 
mit our  cause  to  Almighty  God,  who  shall 
impartially  judge  all." 

Latimer  added,  "  There  is  nothing  hid 
but  shall  be  made  manifest." 

Ridley  distributed  his  gown,  watch,  and 
other  keepsakes  among  his  friends. 

Latimer  wore  a  long  shroud  reaching 
over  his  feet  under  his  threadbare  coat. 
A  New  Testament  hung  to  his  girdle. 
His  spectacles  hung  around  his  neck.     He 


fllart^rOom 


was  stripped  of  these  and  his  outer  gar- 
ments were  removed.  They  take  off  his 
socks  and  his  feet  were  shod  with  only 
the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace. 
The  bowed,  withered,  grayhaired  old  man 
rose  erect  in  his  shroud. 

A  murmur  of  sympathy  mingled  with 
horror,  ran  through  the  spectators.     They 
were   moved,  and  yet  they 
were    probably   as    familiar     fmartTerfeom 
with  the  burning  of  a  heretic 
as  we  are  with  elections  as  the  permanent 
amusement  of  a  free  people. 

An  iron  chain  was  fastened  around 
Latimer  and  Ridley  and  fastened  to  the 
stake.  A  bag  of  gunpowder  was  tied  to 
each  of  them  by  friends,  an  act  of  mercy. 
It  was  designed  to  hasten  their  end.  So 
much  escape  of  suffering  was  allowed  them 
by  the  Holy  Church  of  Bloody  Mary, 

Ridley  asked  a  friend  to  look  after  some 
cases  of  charity,  especially  that  of  his 
poor  sister.  He  said  nothing  was  on  his 
conscience  except  that.  His  last  thoughts, 
even  in  these  awful  straits,  were  of 
others,  and  not  of  himself.     They  brought 

221 


Wuflb  Xatimet 


the  fagots  and  laid  them  about  the  feet  of 
the  Reformers,  whereupon  Latimer  ex- 
claimed :  "  Be  of  good  comfort,  Master 
Ridley,  and  play  the  man.  We  shall  this 
day  light  such  a  candle,  by  God's  grace,  in 
England,  as  I  trust  shall  never  be  put  out." 

Everything  was  now  ready.  The 
fagots  were  set  on  fire.  As  the  flames 
rose  about  them,  Ridley  cried  :  "  Lord, 
unto  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit. 
Lord,  Lord,  receive  my  spirit." 

Latimer  held  out  his  arms  as  if  to  em- 
brace the  flames  and  welcomed  his  last 
enemy.  He  prayed  :  "  O  Father  in  heaven, 
receive  my  soul." 

He  stroked  his  face  with  his  hand  as 
though  washing  his  face  with  the  fire,  and 
defying  it  to  touch  his  soul.  The  gun- 
powder exploded  and  Latimer  died. 

Ridley  burned  more  slowly.  The  fire 
joined  his  enemies  in  taunting  him.  He 
cried,  "Let  the  fire  come;  I  cannot 
burn."  He  tried  to  get  more  into  the 
flame.  Some  one  mercifully  assisted  the 
flame  to  reach  him.  The  gunpowder  ex- 
ploded at  last  and  he  likewise  died. 


flllartBtOom 


It  was  finished.  They  had  played  the 
man.  They  had  kindled  a  light  that 
should  never  be  put  out. 

If  we  play  the  man,  we  shall  see  by 
the  light  of  the  fire  of  this  stake  how  un- 
Christlike  and  execrable  is  this  persecuting 
intolerance.  Have  we  played  the  man 
and  the  Christian  to  that  extent  ? 

For  the  want  of  this  manliness  the 
German  Protestants  refused  coalition  with 
the  Protestants  of  England.  Melancthon 
called  the  English  martyrs  the  "devil's 
martyrs."  When  the  English  Protestants 
fled  to  the  continent,  they  were  driven 
with  abuse  and  insult  from  every  port 
and  town  and  hearthstone  where  the 
disciples  of  Luther  prevailed.  The  en- 
mity between  Calvinists  and  Lutherans 
was  as  fierce  as  that  between  Reformers 
and  Catholics.  The  Lutherans  avowed 
that,  "  rather  than  tolerate  such  heretics 
as  the  Calvinists  they  would  turn  back  to 
the  Church  of  Rome." 

A  strange,  strange,  strange  history  is 
the  history  of  the  breaking  away  of  Eng- 
land from  the  dominion  of  Rome.     It  was 


Muab  TLatlmec 


not  until  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  in 
1558  that  the  separation  of  the  Church  of 
England  from  the  Church  of  Rome  was 
consummated. 

Parliament  established  the  Reformed 
religion  in  1559,  four  years  after  Latimer 
and  Ridley  had  been  burned  for  preaching 
it,  and  Elizabeth  became  supreme  governor 
in  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  as  well  as 
temporal  things. 

Then  came  the  turn  of  the  Protestants 
to  persecute.  They  did  not  use  the  fire 
so  freely,  but  they  used  fines,  imprison- 
ment, and  torture  as  freely  as  they  dared. 
They  had  no  more  idea  of  tolerating  the 
Catholics  than  the  Catholics  had  of  tol- 
erating them,  and  it  was  Protestant  eat 
Protestant.  The  Reformed  faith  made  it 
so  hot  for  the  Puritans  in  England  that 
the  Puritans  fled  to  this  country  and  made 
it  hot  for  the  Quakers. 

Religion  entered  into  the  cause  of  the 
last  war  between  Turkey  and  Russia. 
The  crescent  on  one  flag  means  one  re- 
ligion, the  cross  on  the  other  flag  means 
another  religion — does  it  not  ?  Both  Rus- 
224 


tllartBr5om 


sian  Christians  and  Turkish  Moham- 
medans were  as  mercilessly  intolerant  as 
were  the  good  Christians  of  the  time  of 
Saint  Henry  Vlll.,  "  Defender  of  the 
Faith." 

Did  I  not  hear  Protestant  preachers 
during  that  war  express  the  wish  and  the 
prayer  from  the  pulpit  that  the  Turks 
might  be  crushed  out  and  destroyed  from 
the  face  of  the  earth  ?  Could  any  motive 
short  of  a  religiously  vindictive  one  prompt 
such  a  wish  or  inspire  such  a  prayer  ? 

Have  you  not  known  recent  instances 
of  members  of  a  family  being  disowned 
and  banished  for  becoming  Catholics  or 
Protestants  ?  Nay,  do  not  some  have  the 
door  shut  against  them  and  the  heart 
steeled  against  them  for  going  from  one 
Protestant  denomination  to  another  ? 

What  is  this  but  the  spirit  of  persecu- 
tion ?  What  is  this  but  the  intolerance 
that  has  covered  the  history  of  our  re- 
ligion with  reproach  as  with  a  garment 
and  reddened  every  step  of  its  progress 
with  blood  ? 

It  certainly  is.     When  we  feel  it  moving 
p  225 


14ugb  Xatlmcr 


within  us  in  the  treatment  of  the  parent, 
child,  or  friend,  we  may  know  we  share 
in  the  religious  malignity  that  burned 
Latimer  at  the  stake.  And  we  will  never 
play  the  man  nor  act  the  Christian  until 
the  last  symptom  of  this  persecuting  in- 
tolerance is  eradicated  from  our  hearts. 

**  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye 
are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to 
another." 


226 


Date  Due 

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JAN  2  8  '6.f 

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NiMMl{l 

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